Don’t make Indigenous voice to parliament a PR exercise, pleads Liberal senator

Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle understands the key issues facing Indigenous Australians because she’s lived them too. But the voice, she says, is not the answer.

Senator Kerrynne Liddle, an Arrernte woman and experienced businesswoman, says she arrived at a No position for a constitutionally enshrined voice well before her party’s official position. Picture: Matt Turner.

Businesses and sporting groups publicly embracing the Yes campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament are effectively silencing staff or members who might be inclined to vote no, according to South Australian senator Kerrynne Liddle.

“I question the motivations of those organisations who do that. Don’t make it a PR exercise,’’ said Senator Liddle, the federal Liberal Party’s only Indigenous MP.

“I’m pretty courageous but if I was working in one of those organisations or sitting on a board or playing sport with a club, and they came out and said they were supportive of this (Yes vote), I’d be thinking ‘do I really want to say something now?’. It’s a way of silencing people and I don’t like it.’’

Her comments follow Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s attack on Australian companies supporting the constitutional reform.

The first-term senator, an Arrernte woman and experienced businesswoman, said she arrived at a No position for a constitutionally enshrined voice well before her party’s official position.

Now shadow minister for child protection and prevention of family violence, Senator Liddle has personal experience with some of the key issues impacting Indigenous Australians.

Her mother Jean was a child of the Stolen Generations; her sister Jenny lost her life in a domestic violence incident. Senator Liddle has fostered a child with fetal alcohol syndrome disorder whose parents were unable to care for him.

Growing up in Alice Springs, in a loving family committed to hard work and education, also brought future success and an enduring love of culture for Senator Liddle and her siblings.

The Liddle siblings: from left, Lynette and Leanne, Jenny, little brother Jamie and Kerrynne, far right.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian she said her personal experience formed only part of her position. “I don’t come with an aspect that is just Indigenous. My position is based on my lived experience, my professional experience, my personal experience and my understanding about how this voice proposition has evolved.’’

She cites a lack of detail around how the voice will work in practice, the permanence in embedding it into the Constitution and fears it will add another layer of bureaucracy as chief among her concerns. The result, she says, would be divisive and based on race. “I can’t see how you can argue anything else. I can be represented on the basis of my race, my identity, but you can’t seek to be part of that representation, so how is it not about race?”

She said more information is needed to explain how a voice will work to close the gap.

“We’re heading towards a referendum without people on the ground understanding how this is going to actually work. People are going with the vibe because it makes them feel good and it will look good on the international stage but is it going to make a difference? I’m not convinced.”

She said it was wrong to make people feel guilty or ashamed of their No position as she criticised comments from Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney that it is a patriotic duty to vote yes and that Fair Australia, the group leading the No campaign, is using Trump-like tactics and peddling misinformation.

In her National Press Club speech, Ms Burney put more detail around the voice, saying she would ask it to consider four main priority areas of health, education, jobs and housing. She said voice members would be chosen by local communities for local communities, to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged Australians.

“For too long governments have made policies for Indigenous Australians, not with Indigenous Australians. We need the voice to change that,’’ she said, adding that the country has everything to gain and nothing to lose from the voice.

Senator Liddle says there were already many loud voices, bodies, commissioners, advocates, working groups and expert panels providing advice. She says a good start would be to make the existing frameworks and bodies funded to consult, advocate and provide services more accountable, along with politicians of all persuasions.

“Thinking things will change because we’re going to add in another consultation framework is, quite frankly, nonsensical. How about trying accountability? How about trying responsibility?

“We have to improve the way we are doing things.’’