Peter Dutton to rally Liberals on No stance on Indigenous voice to parliament

Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley will use a special Liberal partyroom meeting on Wednesday to endorse a position opposing the voice referendum model and constitutional amendment.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley will use a special Liberal partyroom meeting on Wednesday to rally the troops and endorse a position opposing the Albanese government’s voice referendum model and constitutional amendment.

Moderate and conservative Liberal MPs told The Australian that the wording of Anthony ­Albanese’s constitutional amendment and legal risks of a voice body advising both parliament and the executive government ­remained major concerns.

The Liberal partyroom is ­expected to join the Nationals in rejecting the government’s referendum model. The preferred model for most Liberal MPs is constitutional recognition for ­Indigenous Australians and a legislated voice to parliament supported by local and regional voices.

If the Prime Minister rejects changes to the government’s constitutional amendment ahead of a June parliamentary vote, backbench Liberal MPs will be granted a conscience vote.

Following the disastrous Aston by-election result, Mr Dutton is expected to use the partyroom meeting to energise deflated Liberal MPs. The Opposition Leader on Tuesday joined his deputy leader in Albury – the birthplace of the Liberal Party – to present a united force ahead of Liberal MPs converging on Canberra for the partyroom meeting.

After Labor became the first incumbent federal government in more than 100 years to claim an opposition seat at a by-election, Mr Dutton will urge his team to remain united and focused on Australian households and businesses facing economic headwinds and cost-of-living pressures.

Speaking in Ms Ley’s western NSW seat of Farrer, Mr Dutton praised “the way that our colleagues have stuck together and rallied” since last year’s federal election rout.

“They understand that at the 10-month mark the government is still in its honeymoon period and they’ll continue that for some time,” Mr Dutton said.

Ms Ley, who is considered by some in Liberal ranks as a future leadership prospect, endorsed Mr Dutton for doing “an outstanding job uniting the Liberal Party”.

“It’s always a tough period going into opposition. But we are united, we are determined and we are ready to meet the challenges so we can demonstrate that we’re here for the Australian people who want us to provide an alternative,” Ms Ley said.

“Saturday was a tough day in the office but we’ll regroup, we’ll redouble our efforts and we will earn the faith, the trust and the support of the Australian people.”

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Julian Leeser, an ­architect of the original voice concept, on Monday outlined a Liberal blueprint that would let parliament legislate who in the executive government an advisory body could engage with.

NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, a leading moderate who is one of four Coalition MPs on the 13-person joint select committee reviewing the government’s referendum model, said the party should not seek to “bind its members and senators to a position”.

“My starting point is that we have not sought to bind people in the past,” he said. “And you’ve had John Howard voting ‘no’ for the Republic and Peter Costello voting ‘yes.’ And then you had Malcolm Turnbull voting ‘yes’ on (same-sex) marriage and other members of his cabinet voting ‘no’. That has always been part of the Liberal tradition.

“We’ve always been a supporter of freedom. We’ve always been a supporter of trying to put in place new structures. And so my sense is that we will get to a credible position.”