Christian push to silence a voice to parliament

The Australian Christian Lobby is urging Australians to vote against a voice to parliament, warning that it could become a vehicle for critical race theory or an advocate for identity politics.

Australian Christian Lobby managing director Martyn Iles. Picture: AAP

The Australian Christian Lobby is urging Australians to vote against a voice to parliament, warning that it could become a vehicle for critical race theory or an advocate for identity politics.

ACL managing director Martyn Iles has emerged as one of the first high-profile Christian leaders to come out publicly against the proposal, warning that Australians should be “wary of the voice and the sinister ideas ­behind it”.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Iles upholds the mission of Martin Luther King Jnr and his struggle during the US civil rights movement to achieve a society that was no longer divided along racial lines.

“A nation divided by race is ­exactly the desired outcome of those seeking to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the Australian Constitution,” he said.

Mr Iles attacks the idea that a voice is the only way to guarantee that Indigenous Australians can “have a say over the laws and policies that affect them”.

“If this were true, it would mean our democratic institutions are so broken they are unable to incorporate the ambitions and ­aspirations of Indigenous Australians,” he said. “This is a blatant denial of the reality that there are currently 11 Indigenous parliamentarians, and a minister for Indigenous Australians overseeing a multi-billion-dollar government department.”

A referendum working group has been established to advise the government on the timing of the vote and provide suggestions on how Anthony Albanese’s proposed question and constitutional amendments could be refined. It will be co-chaired by Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and West Australian senator Pat Dodson, but will include a range of prominent supporters of the proposal, including Noel Pearson, Dean Parkin, Megan Davis, Marcia Langton, Tom Calma and Pat Anderson.

On Thursday, Peter Dutton said he was concerned the voice was being “rushed” and questions needed to be answered, including whether veto powers would be given to the body over environmental approvals.

“It does seem to me and to ­others, I think, that they’re making it up on the run at the moment and I think that’s because they are trying to rush it,” he told 2GB radio. “They want to get it through before the next election and bask in that. But if they put up a referendum that ends up failing because it hasn’t been properly explained by the Prime Minister; that’s a bad day.”

In his speech to the Garma Festival in July, the Prime Minister suggested the inclusion of extra sentences in the Constitution, including that “the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­islander peoples”.

“The parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander voice,” Mr Albanese said.

But Mr Iles warned that the ­result of the voice would be a “Constitution claiming that, as a white man, I am inescapably an oppressor to people of colour”.

“It is a permanent statement that our nation is irredeemably segregated by a barrier to our shared humanity that cannot be scaled – our race,” he said. “These false ideas lead to the inevitability that the voice will become the woke voice. It won’t be the Indigenous voice, it will be the critical race theory voice, the identity politics voice,” he said.