In a shocking announcement in Canberra on Monday, which surprised even his Liberal counterparts, the National Party leader David Littleproud formalised the party’s opposition to the Indigenous Voice proposal.
The Nationals' decision has been made before the final details of the constitutional provision and Voice model have been confirmed, jumping the gun on an important national public process without appropriate engagement or consideration.
Littleproud stated that the party would not support the Indigenous Voice because it will do nothing to close the gap. Instead, they say they want to see empowerment for local Indigenous communities.
If you are wondering if there is any sincerity behind the Nationals position, you need only look to their recent record in government for the answer.
A history of undermining Indigenous communities
While the Nationals were in power with the Liberals, they certainly did not practice what they are now preaching from the opposition benches. They never bothered to implement laws and policies that would have sufficiently empowered Indigenous communities to close the gap.
In fact, when it comes to empowering Indigenous communities, the Nationals actions facilitated quite the opposite.
They undermined local Indigenous decision-making while the bureaucracy surrounding Indigenous suffering was fattened on their failures. They presided over a decade of regression in Indigenous affairs – especially in rural and remote areas.
while dictating to Indigenous people that they knew best.
Now they are claiming they are listening.
But to who? Herein lies the problem.
We must choose our own representatives
When politicians are left to choose the Indigenous representatives they are going to listen to, they tend to get it terribly wrong.
Speaking with the Nationals at the press conference on Monday was Senator Jacinta Price, the Northern Territory senate representative for the Country Liberal Party.
Price has opposed an Indigenous Voice to Parliament since the proposal first came to be in 2017, when the Uluru Statement from the Heart was endorsed in an unprecedented national Indigenous consensus.
Jacinta Price on Monday. The senator is against a Voice to Parliament. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
At the Conservative Political Action Conference – a far-right, Trumpian and climate change denying anti-Indigenous-Voice-fest held earlier this year – Price bragged that she would lead the ‘No’ case.
Senator Price may be the favoured Indigenous Voice for the Nationals, who with their decision to oppose the referendum, are now closer to extremists than they are to their pragmatic rural constituents.
But Indigenous people . And surely that should be easy enough to understand in a democracy.
We don't choose to torment ourselves
Imagine being one of the thousands of Indigenous co-authors of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, who had done the hard work around the country to build a consensus; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from mostly rural and regional areas watching Senator Price surrounded by at least a dozen white politicians purporting to speak for them.
Imagine our disgust, as she stated that Indigenous people are already equal under the law, in complete ignorance of the gaps in life expectancy and incarceration rates. As if the poor outcomes in education, health and employment having nothing to do with the laws and policies that govern us.
As if we choose to torment ourselves.
And so it was on Monday, once again, a mostly non-Indigenous political party, so terribly disconnected from the realities of life for Aboriginal people whether they be in Redfern or Yuendumu, or any other place in Australia, has decided who will be the Voice for Indigenous people: them, and whoever they choose.
As if that has ever worked for us before.
I have visited many rural and regional communities, doing the work so we may win this referendum. I have learned that the voters in those electorates have a deep respect for the land and the waterways.
They acknowledge my peoples ancient and ongoing connection to country, and they are often seeking out our deep knowledge to become better custodians themselves.
As the Nationals slip further away from relevance, it becomes clear that an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will do a better job than them when it comes to looking after the interests of everyday rural and regional people.
Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He is an official of the Maritime Union of Australia and a passionate advocate for the Uluru Statement From The Heart.
