Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “come clean” about the implications of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Speaking to Sky News Australia, Senator Cash said that while Mr Albanese wanted the Australian people to “vote on the vibe,” the Australian people needed to be told what rights would be created by the Voice referendum.
“If he wants this referendum to have any legitimacy at all, he needs to come clean with the Australian people,” Senator Cash said.
“He needs to tell them exactly what he proposes to do, but more than that, what are the flow on effects to our democracy.”
Senator Cash, who served as Attorney-General during the Morrison government, said that the government’s Voice proposal would give Indigenous Australians an additional right that no other Australians have.
“Mr Albanese is asking the Australian people to give less than 4 per cent of our population a constitutional right, to make representations (to both the parliament and the executive)… on any policy that affects them, which is anything from submarines through to parking tickets,” she said.
“And this is a right that no other Australian will have. So talk about walking away from a fundamental belief that all Australians have an equality of citizenship.”
The shadow attorney general, who returned to the portfolio following the resignation of Julian Leeser, said this would also come with the right to be “properly informed”, with major implications for how government functions.
“If you have a right to make a representation, you have a right to demand of government that you are properly informed. To be properly informed the government must, prior to making the representation, provide you with adequate information,” Senator Cash said.
“So what you are talking about here is an additional layer of bureaucracy in Canberra.”
“This is literally going to be, not the first level, the second level, the third level, this will be the fourth level of government in Canberra.”
“And can I tell you, you’re not going to hear the voices from Laverton, from the people of Leonora, from the people of Alice Springs,” she warned.
However, Senator Cash said that the most offensive aspect of the proposal was that it is “asking Australians to divide each other on the basis of race.”
“As Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says, I have a whitefella father and a blackfella mother, and Mr Albanese is asking my family to be divided into two,” Senator Cash said.
“That is not the way Australians want to live. We want to be one together, not two divided.
“What Mr Albanese is doing is constitutionally enshrining the dividing of Australia. That is not healthy for democracy.”
Senator Cash said that the Coalition’s policy on the Voice was “very clear.”
“We will say no to enshrining in our constitution a right that no other Australian has other than those of a particular race. We will say no to Anthony Albanese’s Canberra-based bureaucracy,” the shadow attorney-general said.
“Because this is not the way to go about achieving real outcomes on the ground for Indigenous people in particular in regional Australia.”
Senator Cash said that all Australians want to see improvements in the lives of our most disadvantaged citizens, but Labor’s Voice proposal is “not the way to do it.”
Source: skynews.com.au
