Prof Marcia Langton, one of the most experienced members of the Indigenous voice to parliament working group, has launched an attack on the “relentless scare campaign” waged by opponents and called on the government to “reassure” voters by endorsing the voice co-design report.
Langton has called on the Albanese government to endorse the report as the basis for post-referendum parliamentary processes and public consultations. The report lays out in detail how a national voice model would operate.
The government has referred repeatedly to the report as the source of useful detail on how the voice might work, but has stopped short of endorsing it outright.
Langton was speaking after the president of the Country Liberal party in the Northern Territory, Lawson Broad, announced he was resigning over the party’s opposition to the voice.
Broad said of the CLP’s opposition to a constitutionally enshrined advisory body:
“My personal view is that these positions are offensive to a large number of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and the population more generally,” Broad told Sky news on Monday.
“By their nature, they have the potential to further entrench Aboriginal disadvantage and they create opportunity to be interpreted as racist,” he said.
Prof Langton said with Broad’s resignation, the “realpolitik” of the rural and remote regions was becoming clear, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations are in the majority, and suffer the worst disadvantages.
“The politicians who know and understand the Indigenous residents of their electorates know that the voice makes sense and that it is the singular fix to decades of appalling Indigenous policy and appalling government inaction that has, by and large, worsened the outcomes for our people,” Langton said.
Langton said she and design group co-chair Prof Tom Calma “received great encouragement from many who represent large Aboriginal populations” and who had “more experience in parliament than Senator Jacinta Price or Senator Lidia Thorpe.”
She said the no campaign was a “rabble” with little experience in developing policy and legislation.
“I know from the consultations on the voice co-design that the vast majority of Indigenous people support our model. There are calls for details when our final report was sent to cabinet in the previous government twice and remains publicly available online,” she said.
The report produced by Prof Langton and Prof Tom Calma for the previous government, was the result of 18 months of consultation with 9,478 people and organisations, including 115 community consultations in 67 locations, 2,978 submissions, 1,127 surveys, 124 stakeholder meetings and 13 webinars.
“The sensible approach for the present government is to endorse our report as the basis for post-referendum parliamentary processes and public consultations. There are no other rigorously developed models available, only thought bubbles,” Langton said.
“I believe that most Australians will vote for the voice but voters deserve to be reassured that this government will consider our voice co-design report as a well-informed, sound basis for further legislative development of the final voice model,” she said.
“It would be tragic if the referendum were voted down because of the relentless scare campaign from people who clearly do not understand the scale of the tragedy we are addressing, and many of whom care nothing for the lives of Indigenous Australians,” she said.
Comment has been sought from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus.
