Jacinta Nampijinpa Price embarks on Indigenous voice to parliament referendum unity drive
A busy cafe run by Vietnamese-Australians was an ideal setting for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s message about a united yet diverse nation living with the sinister threat of racial divide.
A busy cafe run by Vietnamese-Australians was an ideal setting for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s message about a united yet diverse nation living with the sinister threat of racial divide.
In the office district of West Perth on Tuesday morning, Senator Nampijinpa Price worked the coffee machine with members of the Luong family at Epic Cafe, later saying: “I mean, they are an example of the Australian story, and as I keep saying to Australians around the country, it doesn’t matter whether we were here 60,000 years ago or six months ago: you are Australian, it doesn’t matter your racial heritage.”
Yes advocates thought they would own the concept of bringing Australians closer together in this referendum. But Senator Nampijinpa Price has taken it from them and it appeared to be working on undecided voters and Hard Nos alike.
The first-term politician received a rapturous reception at Perth’s biggest convention centre the previous night as she walked on stage to the sound of husband Colin Lillie singing the opening lines of his country rock song, Renegade: “I’m the bringer of change.”
The audience of more than 1200 – all wearing caps depicting the logo of anti-voice campaign Fair Australia – applauded loudly throughout her 17-minute speech on Monday night.
The most enthusiastic applause came when Senator Nampijinpa Price promised to put a broom through Indigenous spending.
Spending is another policy space she seems to be owning in this campaign – despite the fact the voice proposal was partly conceived as a way to end decades of waste and misdirected funds.
“We’re going to do what we haven’t done yet. We’re gonna find out where the billions of dollars are being spent,” she said.
While the crowd devoured it, Peter Dutton did not seem as enthusiastic next morning about committing to an audit, a royal commission or any details about how a Coalition government would carry out this promise.
“I can tell you this: if the Coalition is successful at the next election and I’m prime minister and Jacinta is our minister for Indigenous affairs or Indigenous Australians, there will be improvements made for people living in Indigenous communities like Alice Springs because Jacinta has a practical knowledge, understanding and the ability to apply that skill and knowledge to the benefit of Indigenous Australians,” he said.
Asked what the Coalition’s approach to commonwealth Indigenous affairs spending would be, and how it would differ from previous audits that have revealed a litany of failings, Mr Dutton said: “Well, we will have a lot more to say in relation to these matters in the run-up to the election.”
Several popular social media posts claim the commonwealth’s state and territory Indigenous affairs budget is around $40bn, which appears to be a figure reached after adding inflation to a 2017 Productivity Commission estimate of $33.4bn.
However, The Australian has reported that the Productivity Commission stresses $6bn of that was for programs and policies specifically for Indigenous Australians. The rest – $27.4bn – was for things all Australians receive such as Medicare.
Indigenous voice supporters, including Rio Tinto board member Ben Wyatt, the former WA treasurer, see the advisory body as the only option on offer to reform ineffective Indigenous policy and save taxpayer dollars. Mr Wyatt says it will do this by giving government clear advice from communities that know what works and what does not work.
“These comments from Senator Price highlight that the No position lacks any intellectual foundation other than they will continue to do the same, but, apparently, with more determination,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Senator Price acknowledges … Aboriginal affairs needs more accountability and transparency – the Yes position agrees and argues that this should be in the form of a voice that has the expertise and distance from government to perform such a role. The No position has some odd faith that the status quo, that puts deep faith in the institutions of government doing exactly the same thing, will somehow deliver a different outcome.”
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