Jacinta Nampijinpa Price jumps ship for new No drive against the voice

The NT senator has quit the national committee she launched with Warren Mundine just weeks ago and will head a new grassroots No campaign.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will head a new grassroots No campaign funded by right-wing activist group Advance. Picture: Getty Images

Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has quit the national committee she launched with Warren Mundine just weeks ago to oppose the Indigenous voice to parliament, and will head a new grassroots No campaign funded by right-wing activist group Advance.

The high-profile defection comes a fortnight after Senator Price, former Labor minister Gary Johns and Mr Mundine unveiled a six-member Recognise a Better Way committee, endorsed by former deputy prime minister John Anderson and prominent Indigenous leaders.

Senator Price on Monday will officially launch the Fair Australia campaign, backed by a $1.45m war chest and 77,000 members recruited by Advance.

The Alice Springs local, who led the push inside the Nationals to formally oppose the referendum to enshrine a constitutional voice to parliament, will use Advance’s resources to take on Dean Parkin’s cashed-up Yes campaign.

After resigning from the Recognise a Better Way campaign on Sunday, Senator Price said the two campaigns would work side-by-side to achieve a “resounding No vote”.

“I am deeply respectful of the national committee members themselves and the work they are undertaking, however I do firmly believe that my efforts are best directed towards the grassroots campaign focus of the Fair Australia campaign as opposed to the thought leadership and policy focus of Recognise a Better Way,” she said. “We are all committed to achieving a resounding No vote and in doing so a positive result for Australians.”

As the Yes and No campaigns finalise their teams and prepare major fundraising drives ahead of the referendum, expected in September or October, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will resume sparring over the voice when parliament and Senate estimates return. The government on Monday will release its second “closing the gap” implementation plan, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s historic apology to the Stolen Generation.

The Australian understands that Mr Dutton, ahead of the government’s referendum machinery legislation being voted on in the parliament in March, had planned to finalise the Liberal Party’s position on the voice over the next month.

Senior Coalition sources on Sunday said that with the Aston by-election expected to be fought on rising mortgages and the cost-of-living, Mr Dutton could delay a final decision on the voice until closer to the May 9 budget.

Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan said the activist group was preparing to mount a “comprehensive national campaign to reach the critical undecided voters that will decide the result”.

Mr Johns said every Australian including Senator Price “should play the best role for them in the campaign”.

“We will continue to lead the policy debate this country needs ahead of the referendum and look forward to working collaboratively with the Fair Australia grassroots campaign moving forward,” he said.

While Senator Price’s campaign will target grassroots communities and undecided voters, the national committee is focusing on proposing a preamble to the Constitution and a new parliamentary committee looking at the rights of native title holders under existing legislation.

Advance has also joined forces with right-wing New Zealand activist group Hobson’s Pledge, whose trustee Casey Costello will meet with federal MPs in Canberra this week to “warn Australians against entrenching racial division in their constitution”.

Ms Costello advocates that the misinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi had “weakened NZ democracy by supplanting the popularly elected government on issues of national importance”.

“Hiding behind the virtuous intentions of better outcomes, successive governments have undermined NZ’s democracy by allocating political capital to an unaccountable and self-appointed body,” she said.

“The people of NZ don’t get the last say. We’ve seen racial division at the very heart of political decision making in NZ, with extra powers granted to just one group. From what I’ve seen of the voice, Australia is in for the same mess.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt on Monday will unveil Indigenous WA senator Dorinda Cox as the party’s new First Nations spokeswoman, replacing Lidia Thorpe who quit the Greens last week.

“My work … will be grounded in our cultural knowledges, practices and protocols as I reach across the aisles of parliament to bring everyone on this journey towards truth telling, treaty and voice,” she said.