Ex-Nationals MP calls on voice ‘sceptics’ to open minds

Maeve Bannister and Tess Ikonomou | February 20, 2023

A former Nationals MP who quit the party because of its opposition to an Indigenous voice to parliament says sceptics will be proven wrong about the proposal. 

Andrew Gee, who quit the party in December and sits on the cross bench as an independent, has joined Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney in regional NSW as the “yes” campaign kicks off. 

Mr Gee said people who had opposed the High Court’s Mabo decision, which recognised Indigenous land rights, were proven wrong about the implications and the same would happen with the voice.

“Sceptics out there, once this voice is implemented, will see that this is not a scary thing, this is not a bad moment for our history, this is an uplifting moment for our history,” he told reporters in Orange on Monday. 

“We want this to be a true community conversation and it should be a moment in our history to celebrate and not to divide.

“I just hope that the sceptics will approach this with an open mind and an open heart.”

Earlier, Nationals Leader David Littleproud told Sky News the voice would create an extra layer of bureaucracy that wouldn’t advance better outcomes for Indigenous people.

But Ms Burney labelled the comments as “misinformation” and “scaremongering”. 

Supporters of the Indigenous voice to parliament have launched a week of action to help Australians understand the proposal and answer questions about its purpose. 

It’s part of a push to start a conversation on the voice in communities rather than politicians and media commentators dominating talks.  

From the Heart director Dean Parkin, who was closely involved in the process that resulted in the Uluru Statement, said he wanted Australians in all communities to be involved in the reconciliation process of constitutional recognition.

“It’s time to bring the conversation … back to where it should be: in communities across the country,” he told ABC Radio National on Monday.

“That’s where this whole idea started from and that’s where we know the campaign will be won.”

A series of online “yarning circles” with voice advocates have been launched to give Australians the opportunity to have their questions answered. 

Ms Burney said anyone who argued there was not enough detail about the voice should “do a bit of work”.

She recommended people take part in the yarning circles and visit the Uluru Statement website.

Uluru Dialogue co-chair and member of the government’s referendum working group Professor Megan Davis said there had been huge demand for the sessions. 

Yet constitutional lawyer Greg Craven, a member of the constitutional expert group providing advice to the referendum working group, said “referendum factions” were obstructing progress.

In a piece published by The Australian, he claimed one “determined bloc” was demanding little detail so it could dictate the model following the referendum. 

But Prof Davis said there were no factions within the referendum working group. 

“The people that I sit among in those working groups have devoted their lives to the service of their communities and they’re certainly not people who would want to hamper this referendum,” she said. 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said his party took to the last election a policy of feeding Indigenous voices into policy.

He criticised the government for not outlining a clear design of what the proposed voice would look like.

“We don’t want to see the violence on the ground, we want to see people in work, getting a good education  … being a part of society, as you would expect anywhere else,” he told reporters in Perth.