Professor says Coalition sowing seed to scuttle voice

Marcia Langton says details on the voice could not be clearer, pointing to a deliberate attempt by the Coalition to create public confusion.

Professor Marcia Langton at the Garma Festival at Gulkula, in East Arnhem. Picture: Tamati Smith/Getty Images

First Nations academic Marcia Langton says the details on an ­Indigenous voice to parliament could not be clearer, arguing growing opposition to the voice among Coalition ranks is a deliberate attempt to “sow” public confusion and scuttle the process.

Anthony Albanese has attended the Garma Festival to advance his proposal for a referendum on a voice to parliament to be held in this term of government, alongside senior Labor figures including Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Special Envoy for Reconciliation Pat Dodson.

The Garma Festival trip comes days after newly elected Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Price delivered an explosive speech to parliament arguing against the voice to parliament, calling it a “handout” that would further divide black and white Australia.

Senator Price said that as an Indigenous woman, she had had her fill “of being symbolically recognised” and that First Nations Australians “don’t need another handout”.

“We hear the platitudes of motherhood statements from our now Prime Minister who suggests without any evidence whatsoever that a voice to parliament bestowed upon us through the virtuous act of symbolic gesture by this government is what is going to empower us,” Senator Price said in her first speech.

“His government has yet to demonstrate how this proposed voice will deliver practical outcomes and unite rather than drive a wedge further between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

“No, Prime Minister, we don’t need another handout … and no, we Indigenous Australians have not come to agreement on this statement.”

But Professor Langton said the former government’s senior advisory group on the voice put forward a very straightforward plan after a thorough process of consultation with Indigenous people.

Speaking to the ABC, Professor Langton said it was all “already laid out” in parliamentary reports, including a number of recommendations handed down by two joint select committees.

She said growing opposition within the Liberal Party, which is demanding more detail about the voice, could stymie the process and spark unnecessary confusion for voters ahead of a proposed referendum.

“When people say they want more detail, all it tells me is that they refuse to read our report because all the detail is in there,” Professor Langton said.

Marcia Langton. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

“There’s over 500 pages of detail, and I see this demand for more detail as just mischief-making and sowing confusion.

“I wonder if some of them can read and write … we couldn’t be more clearer than we have been.

Labor has promised to hold a referendum to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in its first term of government, and the Prime Minister has called it a “gracious, generous hand being extended to non-Indigenous Australians”.

The voice would allow Indigenous Australians to have a greater say on the design, development and implementation of policies and programs that affect them, and create a formal partnership between government and First Nations communities.

It has bipartisan consensus after Peter Dutton confirmed he would support it, and named Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who is an outspoken supporter of constitutional recognition, as the Coalition’s Indigenous affairs spokesman.

Professor Langton conceded it was very hard to change the Constitution, with only eight out of 44 successful referendums in Australia, but remained optimistic it could succeed.

“I hope so, if we get our skates on we can do this,” she said.