Teen sparks clash over Voice to Parliament between Jacinta Price and Malarndirri McCarthy

A simple question from a teenager on ABC’s Q&A led to a fiery TV debate between two Senators about the upcoming Voice referendum.

The two sides of the Voice to Parliament debate have clashed face-to-face, sparked by a question from a teenager trying to find out more about the Voice to Parliament referendum.

Schoolgirl Laura Strawbridge asked the QandA panel, which included Country Liberal Senator for the NT Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, about the funding behind the referendum.

“Why should substantial taxpayer funds be used to make this referendum occur, with the risk of the Voice being merely symbolic, as opposed to investing that money into Indigenous communities through the means of education and health care, which would likely create real positive change,” she asked.

The panel spent a long period of the program discussing the Voice to Parliament referendum after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed the question that would be put to Australians later this year. Picture: ABC

The schoolgirl's question sparked quite a row over the Voice to Parliament. Picture: ABC

First off the bat to answer the young girl’s question was Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, who said the Voice was Indigenous people asking for “their voice to never be cut off”.

“In every change of government there has been a change of policy around Aboriginal peoples lives and as a result, their lives have been turned upside down and they’ve had to start again with a new leader or a new government and then again, and again,” she said on the program.

“Even though we’ve spent millions and millions of dollars over decades trying to fix a lot of problems, something’s not working, it’s clearly not working.

“And so when the First Nations people ask us and invite Australians to do something that they think is at least some of the answer to a lot of the dispossession and the tyranny of question, they can do it.”

Her statement was strongly rejected by Senator Price, who has come out against the Voice, who said the regular change in government was “called democracy” and something that all Australians had to go through.

Senator Price then turned and began to attack the “thousands” of taxpayer funded organisations that “waste” Australian taxpayer money instead of alleviating disadvantage,

“Even though we’ve spent millions and millions of dollars over decades trying to fix a lot of problems, something’s not working, it’s clearly not working," Ms McCarthy said. Picture: ABC

Senator Price then interjected with her reasons why the Voice should not go ahead. Picture: ABC

“We haven’t gone and sorted out the gatekeepers that exist in the land councils that exist, that control Aboriginal land, and do not give traditional owners the opportunity to utilize their land to create economic development opportunities,” she said.

Senator Price and Senator McCarthy then went head to head, firing off statements about the Voice at each other, with Stan Grant joking that politicians just “talk over each other”.

The question was then tackled by Greens Senator for WA Jordan Steele-John, who said Australia “should be able to do both”.

“The value that I and the Greens see in enshrining this body in the constitution is the permanency that that enshrinement grants because we’ve seen over advancing political realities on both sides to take the body out or replace it,” he said.

Senator Steele-John was almost cut off by Senator Price jumping in to talk about “permanent disadvantage” during his time speaking.