Queensland LNP ducks state vote on Indigenous Voice

Queensland’s Liberal National Party opposition has avoided voting on a symbolic state government motion supporting an Indigenous Voice to federal parliament.

Beginning the last sitting week of 2022, the Palaszczuk Labor government seized on rifts emerging within the merged state LNP and its federal Coalition over the issue.

Debate over the Indigenous Voice to federal parliament has emerged in Queensland’s parliament. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Matt Dennien

Queensland-based federal Nationals leader David Littleproud announced on Monday his party would formally oppose Voice — a group pitched to provide advice on laws and policies affecting First Nations people.

Some state-based branches and federal Nationals MPs have broken ranks, saying they would support the proposal, which stems from the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart and was endorsed by hundreds of Indigenous leaders.

After Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk opened an hour-long, last-minute debate on the state parliament’s support for Voice on Tuesday, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli labelled the move “grubby wedge politics”.

Crisafulli did not, however, reveal his position on Voice, following reports at the weekend members of the LNP state council called on the federal Coalition to oppose it in a looming referendum.

The National Party seeks to divide our country at a time when ... we all should be working together.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

He said the state parliament’s focus should instead be on issues it has control over, such as water and housing in remote communities, and he criticised the lack of notice given to non-government MPs.

“I contrast the way the prime minister [Anthony Albanese] has conducted himself in this debate with the way the premier just has, and I want to point to the leadership of the way that Mr Albanese has sought to build consensus on this,” Crisafulli said.

As Crisafulli spoke, Labor MPs jeered “stand for something”.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles then accused the LNP of looking to “score cheap political points” and divide the community with a campaign against Voice.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the federal Nationals and state LNP council — made up of party executives, regional delegates and state and federal MPs — were going to be “on the wrong side of history”.

“Why the leader of the opposition would stand up and be part of this debate and not actually say what he believes ... what is the member for Broadwater’s view?” she said.

Labor’s majority in parliament meant the motion was passed by spoken agreement from party MPs alone — with LNP MPs not voicing a position either way — avoiding a formal recorded vote.

The federal Liberal partyroom is yet to decide how to approach Voice.

While endorsed within the Uluru Statement, support is not universal — with some calls for treaties to come first alongside conservative opposition to a constitutionally enshrined Voice.

Queensland’s lumbering treaty process is expected to reach its next milestone in early 2023, with laws establishing a Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry and First Nations Treaty Institute to guide efforts.

The Treaty Advancement Committee report, published in October 2021 but only responded to by the government in August, had called for the laws to be introduced by July 2022.

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