‘Cultural intervention’: No campaigner plans major event focusing on Aboriginal kids

Under-fire anti-Voice campaigner Gary Johns plans to host a major conference next year focusing on a “very heavy cultural intervention” for Aboriginal kids in remote communities.

The organisation behind the No campaign for the Voice plans to host a major conference next year focusing on how to “save” Aboriginal lives and get at-risk Indigenous kids removed from their remote communities.

Under-fire anti-Voice campaigner and No committee member Gary Johns said a major conference will be held in the middle of 2024 at which his organisation, Recognise a Better Way, will speak to people on the “frontline” about how to “save” Indigenous children from their “shocking life” in remote communities.

Mr Johns told a podcast hosted by former One Nation candidates that the No movement would continue, regardless of the Voice outcome.

“The Voice is headed for failure. Next year, there will be an opportunity to recast the debate on Aboriginal affairs,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“We can begin to concentrate on only those in need and not on the careerists, who currently run the Aboriginal industry.”

Mr Johns is gearing up to host a major event next year regardless of the Voice outcome. Picture: Aaron Francis

In the podcast, Mr Johns argues that the key to saving children is to get them away from remote Indigenous communities, but denies the approach is a repeat of the Stolen Generation.

In comments to the Telegraph Mr Johns clarified that he was referring to at-risk children and critiqued the preference to place them with other Aboriginal carers.

“We’re going to be running a major conference in the middle of next year, from people at the front line saying this is a crisis and what doesn’t work,” he says.

An ad for the Voice No campaign. Picture: Supplied

“And then we’re going to talk to people who are running, boarding schools, rehab centres, all sorts of things that are helping individuals, day by day, one by one, to try to get them into the wider society. And that’s happening all the time.”

“It’s not about identity or Aboriginal ownership, it’s about giving you the keys to the door to the open society. And most of that will be very, very heavy cultural intervention, ie. get those kids into boarding schools and on a path where they’ve got a chance.”

When asked by the host if this will spark comparisons to the Stolen Generation, Mr Johns said: “We’re not talking about taking children away from their families we re talking about working with those families to have that child perhaps go to boarding schools … we need more boarding schools in the region.”

He added that “our language has to be careful, we are setting out to save lives … the day after the referendum, even if it got up, we will plug in anyway because we know we’re right.”

‘APPALLED’

Aboriginal senator Malarndirri McCarthy said she was “appalled” by Mr Johns comments on Aboriginal affairs, including earlier calls for an Aboriginal blood test.

“There is no place for these abhorrent views in Australia’s political discourse and we’ve seen universal condemnation from across politics including from Liberals, Labor and independents,” she said.

“The No campaign says people are what they say – so are they comfortable with their campaign being represented by Gary Johns?”

Labor Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton called for Peter Dutton to intervene after Mr Johns refused to stand down and fellow No campaigner Warren Mundine defended him. 

“If the NO campaign won’t sack Gary Johns, then Peter Dutton must intervene and make them.,” he wrote on social media.

‘FIRE HIM’: LIBERALS DOUBLE DOWN ON SACKING CALLS

The latest revelations come as senior Liberal figures Matt Kean, Mark Coure and former politician Kate Carney doubled down on calls for Mr Johns to resign.

Mr Kean doubled down on his call Johns’ resignation from the board of the No campaign ahead of the Voice to parliament referendum, while Mr Coure issued a statement on Tuesday calling on the No campaign to fire Mr Johns after he refused to stand down over controversial comments revealed by The Daily Telegraph.

“There are good people on both sides of the Voice Referendum debate making serious and considered arguments for and against the Voice,” the joint statement said.

“However, Mr Gary Johns’ call last night for all Aboriginal benefits recipients to be blood tested, and for a national public holiday celebrating intermarriage between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, as well as his belief that Aboriginal people will find a period in jail a “respite from a distraught life” means he has no place in this national conversation.

Gary Johns. Picture: Aaron Francis

Matt Kean. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“His views are repugnant to everything this country stands for: fairness, decency, and respect for our fellow Australians. If Mr Johns’ refuses to resign from the board of the official No Campaign today, the No Campaign should do the decent and honourable thing and fire him.”

The Federal Liberal Party is opposed to the Voice referendum but Liberals for Yes co-convener and former politician Kate Carnell called Mr Johns’ comments “deeply disturbing”.

“Liberals For Yes call on all reasonable and fair-minded leaders in the No Campaign to publicly condemn these comments by their fellow No Campaign board member in the strongest possible terms,” she said.

“Australia can come out of this referendum a fairer and more united country, but to do so we must not let these comments stand.”