Yes camp streets ahead on unity as No splits: Warren Mundine backs treaties, changing Australia Day
Senior Liberals say Warren Mundine’s comments supporting treaties and changing Australia Day could ‘blow up’ any Senate preselection tilt by him.
Senior NSW Liberal Party figures have warned Warren Mundine’s support for changing Australia Day and treaties in the middle of the voice referendum campaign – which is at odds with fellow leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – could “blow up” his potential tilt for the Senate.
Mr Mundine’s declarations that treaties would be more likely if the referendum failed and that January 26 should not be the national day appeared to undermine key criticisms from opponents of the voice.
Mr Mundine also said it was “just a fact” too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continued to live in poverty and suffer the consequences of past maltreatment and discrimination, three days after Senator Price said colonisation had delivered positive impacts for Indigenous Australians. The federal government and Yes23 campaign seized on the split and “total confusion” within the No campaign on Sunday.
Divisions within the anti-voice camp came as up to 200,000 Australians were estimated to have attended 40 Yes marches on Sunday. Among those marching were Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney, Jim Chalmers, premiers, Cape York leader Noel Pearson and Indigenous academic Marcia Langton.
Anthony Albanese and Daniel Andrews were absent, but the Prime Minister attended an event on Saturday with Mr Pearson.
NSW Liberal insiders, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr Mundine’s comments could “blow him up” after he had long been considered a frontrunner to replace retiring senator Marise Payne. “The whisper among the moderates is that he’s done himself in with the comments,” one party insider said.
Mr Mundine said his focus was on the referendum and had not discussed preselection with anyone, but did not deny interest in Senator Payne’s position.
Another NSW Liberal Party source said the comments had “done him no favours at all”, and from a preselection perspective it “showed a lack of judgment”.
“I think it was a knee-jerk reaction, a bit amateurish,” they said, saying those views didn’t align with most on the right of the party. As the campaign enters the final four-week stretch, Mr Mundine said treaties, which he supports, would be more likely to occur in Australia if the referendum was voted down on October 14 because there wouldn’t be a new bureaucracy.
On Thursday, Senator Price said she feared the first priorities for a constitutionally enshrined voice would be treaty and reparations.
Mr Mundine also maintained Australia Day should be changed despite the No campaign warning a voice would attempt to abolish or move the date of the national public holiday.
Acknowledging he disagreed with “people on my side” on Australia Day and treaties, Mr Mundine told the ABC’s Insiders program: “Yes, I’m a change-the-date person.
“We are going through this … annual argument, which is not helping us. We are just arguing and arguing and arguing about this, and this is one of the reasons why I believe that the idea that the voice, when it is set up, isn’t going to talk about Australia Day is nonsense. We need to confront it and talk about it. We need to have a mature debate. The problem we have is that when we try to pick a date, like I did, it runs into problems.”
Mr Mundine said he supported treaties because they would resolve sovereignty issues and protect Aboriginal culture and heritage.
Asked if Australia was more likely to get treaties if people voted No at the referendum, Mr Mundine said: “Yeah. Because on the 15th of October, if it is a No vote, that’s when the real work starts.”
Yes23 spokeswoman Rachel Perkins said Mr Mundine’s comments “add total confusion to the No case”.
“First they said they would add a referendum and then Jacinta (Nampijinpa Price) said they wouldn’t, and now Warren wants treaty. It sounds very confusing. I think we should just focus on what’s right in front of us in the next 28 days and just make a decision on the Constitution, that’s the business in front of us,” she said.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said there was clearly a split in the No campaign. “Australians have a choice. A choice between recognition and listening or leaving it to the politicians to decide,” he said.
“Better results or more of the same old failures.”
Senator Price was approached for comment.
A No campaign spokesman said treaties were a complex issue and meant different things to different people, dismissing the government’s labelling of a split among opponents.
“If your question is does Warren agree with the Thomas Mayos of the world on reparations, breaking down institutions etc, the answer is absolutely not. In relation to Australia Day – the real issue here is the desire of many of the Yes campaign not to change the date, but to abolish it all together,” the spokesman said.
While the Yes camp has sought to distance the treaty-making process from the voice referendum, the Coalition and prominent No campaigners have continually linked the two and Peter Dutton has accused Mr Albanese of misleading voters over whether the government will pursue treaties if the referendum succeeds.
Mr Mundine on Sunday said he hadn’t spoken with anyone, including the Opposition Leader, about running to replace Senator Payne because he was too busy focusing on the referendum.
He and former NSW MP Andrew Constance are the two frontrunners, although party sources suggested a third man – former Legislative Council MP Lou Amato, who lost his spot on the Liberal upper house ticket after a factional deal in late December to ensure more women were elected – would also put his hat in the ring.
While a time frame for the preselection has not been set, a mid-November vote was likely, party sources said.
One party source said Mr Mundine’s comments could make his path to victory trickier. “It’s a slip up,” the insider said.
Additional reporting: James Dowling
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