Three former Liberal Indigenous affairs ministers declare they will vote ‘yes’ in Indigenous voice to parliament referendum
Three former Liberal Indigenous affairs ministers have declared they will vote in support of a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament. They issued a single sentence, joint statement, declaring: “We support Ken Wyatt and Julian Leeser and intend to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum.”
Three former Liberal Indigenous affairs ministers have declared they will vote in support of a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament, as Anthony Albanese urges Australians to respond to the referendum “with their own instinctive fairness and decency”.
Ian Viner, Fred Chaney and Peter Baume, who all served in the Indigenous affairs portfolio during the Fraser government in the late 1970s and early ’80s, issued a joint one-sentence statement to The Australian declaring that: “We support Ken Wyatt and Julian Leeser and intend to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum.”
Their support means five former Liberals who held the portfolio have publicly revealed they will be voting in favour of changing the Constitution.
However, former Indigenous affairs minister Philip Ruddock expressed deep concerns over the Prime Minister’s plan to enshrine in the Constitution the ability of the voice to make representations to executive government.
Mr Ruddock, who served as minister for Indigenous affairs from 2001-2003, hoped the parliamentary committee examining the constitutional amendment would make changes that could “enable us to move forward together”.
He said there were risks arising from the inclusion of executive government in the wording, telling The Australian he would not reach a final position on whether to support the referendum until the parliamentary process had finished.
“I would like to see a voice allowing Indigenous Australians to be heard on issues impacting upon them, their families and their future,” Mr Ruddock said.
“How that is best achieved I think … is through the proposal that they are heard by the parliament.”
He said there was a “need for the government to respond” to concerns over the inclusion of “executive government” in the amendment and the implications it would have for the High Court.
“We don’t hear the extent to which decisions of the courts on these matters in the past have been quite creative,” he said. “I think the government needs to be conscious of the potential risks.”
Mr Wyatt, the first Indigenous cabinet minister who held the portfolio from 2019-2022, quit the Liberal Party earlier this month over its position on the voice, with Peter Dutton binding his frontbench to the No case and declaring he would personally campaign. Mr Wyatt said he did not “believe in what the Liberals have become”.
Mr Leeser, who was the opposition spokesman for Indigenous affairs following last year’s election defeat, announced his resignation from the frontbench last week so he could campaign for a Yes vote at the referendum.
But he raised major concerns with the model proposed by Mr Albanese and has put forward an alternative wording that would leave the scope and powers of the voice completely to the parliament.
Mr Chaney, who held the Indigenous affairs portfolio from 1978-1980, told The Australian he believed the concerns over the inclusion of “executive government” in the Constitutional amendment were exaggerated.
“It reminds me of the concerns after the Mabo decision that we were all going to lose our backyards,” he said.
“I think we should start listening to Aboriginal people more keenly in the future than we have in the past.”
Mr Albanese will speak in Hobart on Tuesday at the launch of ultra-marathon runner and former Liberal MP Pat Farmer’s bid to run 14,4000km around Australia to raise awareness and support for the voice.
“Australians everywhere are responding to the gracious, generous, patient invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart,” Mr Albanese will say.
“It’s why I have always been optimistic about this referendum because I’ve always been optimistic about the generosity of the Australian people.”
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