‘Be proud’: Political unity plea for Indigenous voice
Andrew Brown |
The minister for Indigenous Australians has made a powerful plea for political unity on the voice to parliament as the parties bicker over details.
As the argument veered towards funding arrangements for the upcoming referendum, Linda Burney delivered a simple message in search of solidarity.
“I want everyone in this chamber to think how they will feel the Sunday morning after a successful referendum,” she told parliament on Thursday.
“We will be proud and we will stand true and tall as Australians.”
While the Liberal Party seeks to shape how the national vote will operate, Anthony Albanese has shot down calls to publicly fund the “yes” and “no” camps.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be funding the campaigns,” the prime minister said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wants taxpayers to cover administrative costs for both sides of the campaign.
“You’re not talking $100 million each for advertising campaigns or anything crazy like that and there will be a lot of corporate sponsorship, particularly for the ‘yes’ case that comes in from companies,” he said.
Mr Dutton denied being at odds with senior Liberal colleague Simon Birmingham, who said both sides were already well organised and didn’t need financial assistance.
“I’m not keen to see large licks of taxpayer funding spent on running campaigns,” Senator Birmingham said.
“There may need to be some administrative support for the standing up of official ‘yes’ or ‘no’ campaign committees, but that’s about as far as I’d want to see anything go.”
He renewed calls for the Albanese government to supply more information on how the voice would operate.
“The absence of detail presents the easiest arguments for the ‘no’ campaign to run against this,” he said.
“The principle of recognition, the principle of consultation … I support that, but I don’t want to see a referendum put that fails.”
Labor is in talks with the coalition on pamphlets to be mailed to households detailing the “yes” and “no” arguments ahead of the referendum in the second half of the year.
The prime minister said “it wouldn’t hurt” for the pamphlets to be distributed.
“People are going to put things in letterboxes anyway during a referendum. If people want taxpayers to pay for it … fine,” he said.
Mr Dutton said the pamphlets were a reasonable idea and the government had seen common sense.
“Australians want to have that information so that they can make an informed decision,” he said.
AAP
