Chief “no” campaigners have doubled down behind claims the Voice would “re-racialise” the nation regardless of a stark warning from the incoming race discrimination commissioner.
Commissioner Chin Tan has advised the Nine newspapers he was interesting to politicians to avoid making race the main focus of the Voice debate, warning it could embolden racists and expose Indigenous Australians to abuse and vilification.
It follows Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s speech in parliament final week that invoked George Orwell in suggesting the Voice would divide the nation.
“No” campaigner Warren Mundine stated Mr Dutton was “spot on”.
“I think Peter Dutton is on to something. This is turning into a very divisive, very hate-filled campaign,” he advised ABC News.
“The campaign hasn’t even started yet. I just find it bizarre that these people who are supposed to be ‘yes’ supporters and ‘yes’ campaigners, who are looking at us to be the people who are dividing this country … this referendum is dividing Australia.
“You see it in the polling and you see it out in the community.”
Mr Mundine made repeated references throughout his tv look a few Supreme Court decide who, in an electronic mail to a Nationals MP obtained by The Australian, referred to as his views on the Voice “disgusting”.
Mr Mundine stated Chief Justice Andrew Bell had used “abusive language” and it was telling of a “constitutional crisis” afoot.
Mr Dutton’s overseas affairs spokesman James Patterson additionally voiced his concern concerning the danger of racial abuse within the wake of the Voice.
“I certainly think the tone in which we engage in this debate is going to be really important because no matter what the result is … afterwards, as Australians, we have to coexist peacefully and pluralistically as neighbours and friends and co-workers and colleagues,” he advised ABC Radio.
Senator Patterson additionally stood behind Mr Dutton’s claims of a “re-racialising” Voice, saying the very premise of the Voice was to deal with a bunch of Australians in another way.
“Now, you could say that it’s on the basis of their race, or if you prefer we could say it’s based on their heritage or their ancestry … or their Indigeneity. But either way, what we’re doing is putting into our Constitution something which treats people differently because of a characteristic with which they have no control,” he stated.
“I think that’s offensive to liberal principles.”
He stated it was “unfair” to sign out Mr Dutton.
“Particularly given leaders of the ‘yes’ campaign have used it to viciously personally attack people that have a different view,” he stated.
Earlier, Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth, in a heated alternate with Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, urged the Coalition to “just listen”.
Sporting our bodies Voice to parliament letter
Mr Joyce and his Coalition colleagues have urged the federal government to as an alternative legislate the Voice mannequin first earlier than presenting it to Australians.
“But to say to people ‘just trust us, it won’t have any undue consequences’, I mean we trusted you when you said you would put down power prices,” Mr Joyce stated.
Doubling down on the federal government’s argument for a Voice to parliament, Ms Rishworth sought to dispel claims the Voice would have veto powers.
“This is a proposition of should Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people be recognised in the Constitution, and how they are recognised is through a Voice, providing advice to parliament,” she advised Chanel 7.
“This is what the proposal is, and that proposal comes from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
“Barnaby, you need to start listening.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
