Bitter war of words as Nationals split on opposition to Voice

The Nationals have split over their opposition to the Voice to parliament less than 24 hours after party leader David Littleproud announced they would formally oppose constitutionally enshrining the body.

As Nationals frontbencher Andrew Gee and the Western Australian state branch broke ranks and publicly backed the Voice, former federal leader Michael McCormack suggested the party could revise its position next year depending on the details of the proposal.

Nationals MPs Andrew Gee, David Littleproud, Jacinta Price and Michael McCormack.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Divisions in the junior Coalition partner, and a bitter war of words between respected Indigenous academic Noel Pearson and Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Tuesday, set the stage for an increasingly hostile debate as the referendum approaches.

In an emotive speech in question time on Tuesday, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney defended the Voice as the country’s best chance to improve the lives of First Nations people after decades of failed policies, taking aim at the Nationals’ position that it would only add another layer of bureaucracy to policymaking.

“This isn’t about dividing people. It is about uniting Australians. Giving First Nations People a say in the matters that affect us. Not being told what is best by bureaucrats,” Burney said.

Littleproud, flanked by most of the Nationals party room on Monday, announced the party would formally oppose the Voice, saying it wanted to empower Aboriginal people at a local level, “not create another layer of bureaucracy here in Canberra”.

But on Tuesday morning, Gee declared on social media that he remained a “long-time supporter of an Indigenous Voice to parliament”.

In a post to his Facebook page, the Calare MP said he was not at the party room meeting when the decision was made, writing: “While I respect the opinions of my colleagues, I’m still a supporter”.

WA Nationals party leader Mia Davies told the ABC she had spoken with Littleproud and said her division had a different view.

“We can explore the idea of a Voice,” she said, adding that the state conference had passed a motion of support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which proposed the Voice.

Linda Burney defended the Voice in an impassioned speech to the House. Credit: Rhett Wyman

The federal Nationals’ decision was furiously condemned by Pearson during an interview on ABC Radio National, in which he excoriated the junior Coalition partner as a “squalid little political party” and Littleproud as a man of “little pride”.

Pearson, a longtime champion of constitutional recognition of First Nations people, said he was “very surprised” by the decision as the Nationals had been among the most supportive of the Voice within parliament’s ranks until recently. Of McCormack, he said: “You could not find somebody more articulate and supportive of the Voice.”

But on Tuesday, McCormack backed the party position, saying the government had had six months and “they haven’t made clear who will be elected to the Voice, how candidates are chosen or what difference it will make to Indigenous people’s lives”.

However, he left open the door to revising the position.

“If Labor comes out in the new year and says here are the details, here is the clarity, this is what we will put to the public and this is how it will close the gap, as well as not usurping those 11 Indigenous people already elected to parliament, we could have another look at it.”

Liberal leader Peter Dutton told his party room they would wait for more information before reaching a position.

Tasmania Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who co-chairs the parliamentary friends of the Voice, said she was “quite open to supporting it and I’m taking the Uluru statement in the spirit in which it has been offered”.

“We [the Liberals] haven’t formed a position yet, we will wait and see what comes. I’m not sure why the Nationals have gone early. Personally, I don’t know that there is enough information to form a judgement.”

“I actually think the symbolism [of the Voice] is important too. It has to be backed by action, but the symbol is not unimportant in itself.”

Pearson attributed the turnaround in the Nationals to the influence of Price, a Warlpiri-Celtic woman who entered parliament at the election and vehemently opposes the Voice.

He accused Price of being caught up in a “tragic redneck celebrity vortex” fuelled by right-wing think tanks who were using her as a “blackfella to punch down on other blackfellas”.

Price, who worked as the Indigenous program director at the conservative think tank the Centre for Independent Studies before entering parliament, condemned the remarks as “ugly”, saying she was “no stranger to attacks from angry men who claim to speak on behalf of Aboriginal Australia”.

“We didn’t need a crystal ball to know that if you do not agree with the Voice to parliament, you will be called names, be accused of racism, bigotry and it will also be suggested that you are incapable of thinking for yourself,” she said in a statement.

Dean Parkin, the director of From the Heart, which is campaigning for the Voice, said the Nationals’ statement was “very strange and obviously pre-emptive”.

“We expect politicians to do their jobs and consider proposals on their merits. There is no proposal before the Nationals at the moment, so it’s a premature statement that has been made,” he said.

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