‘You are disgusting, bro’: Fiery clash erupts over The Voice to Parliament on ABC’s Q+A show

Indigenous Voice for Parliament tensions have boiled over on the ABC’s current panel show Q+A with a Liberal MP labeled ‘disgusting’ for defending colonisation.

Monday Night Program member for Sturt James Stevens was initially guarded when asked what he thought of No campaign spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments that First Nations people were better off because of British settlement.

But when pressed for a direct answer by presenter Patricia Karvelas, Mr Stevens said he believed European colonization was an “extremely good thing for the great society we live in”.

Actor and Kaurna Narungga Ngarrindjeri and Nyoongar wife Natasha Wanganeen, also on the panel, were fired up by the comments, calling it ‘disgusting language’.

Ms Wanganeen is part of the Black Sovereign Movement, which says the Voice in Parliament is another form of assimilation and a Treaty should be the first priority.

James Stevens, MP for Sturt, said he agreed with Senator Price’s comments that the British Settlement was beneficial to all Australians on Monday night’s Q+A programme.

The row erupted when Mr Stevens was asked by an audience member: ‘As a No supporter, how comfortable are you being associated with a campaign that continues to spread disinformation and disinformation?’

“How do you feel connecting with Senator Jacinta Price?”

Mr Stevens replied that he ‘respected’ Senator Price.

“She has more right than me to make such comments. I think she has an opinion that should be respected and others with different opinions should be respected as well.’

Ms Karvelas pushed him on whether he agreed with Senator Price, who previously said colonization had a ‘positive impact’ on the first Australians as ‘we now have running water, we have ready food’.

“I think European colonization has been an extremely good thing for the great society in which we live,” he replied.

“I’m a proud Australian, I’m proud of our indigenous culture. I am proud of the English institutions that came to this country. I am proud of the multicultural community we have.

“I’m very proud of this country and I think Jacinta Price is a great Australian and she’s very entitled to put her views forward.”

Mrs. Wanganeen was not at all impressed.

‘This is disgusting language. I can’t believe you. You are disgusting, brother, – she replied to the cheers of the audience.

“Any politician that sits there and says things like that, their heart is not in the right place, your soul is wrong, bro.”

And any politician who sits here and asks me to be Australian, I don’t want to be one. I am a Narungga, Nyoongar Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna woman.

“I hope you go home and think about what you said tonight, I mean it.”

Actor and Kaurna Narungga Ngarrindjeri and Nyoongar woman Natasha Wanganeen responded that the comments were ‘disgusting’

Award-winning journalist Karla Grant, who has covered Indigenous issues for decades, said this week she was shocked by the level of bravery the Voice debate has sparked.

“I never imagined it would get so bad and so many horrible things said and so many people turn on each other and racial abuse directed at people on both sides of the argument.”

Ms Grant, a West Arrernte woman, has been reporting on constitutional recognition since it was on the political agenda in the late 1990s under Prime Minister John Howard.

“The amount of racial abuse online directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and some of the arguments that have been going on throughout this campaign has become very bad,” she said.

‘This really surprised me.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has continued to claim the vote will divide Australians and waste taxpayers’ money that could be spent on practical solutions.

“(The prime minister) has divided the country,” he told Sky News.

“I hope people make the effort to get out and vote because this would be the most damaging change to our constitution in the history of our nation.

“We live in the best country in the world, we have to be prepared to stand up and defend it to make sure our institutions are protected.”

More than 2.2 million people cast an early ballot, while another 1.9 million applied for a postal vote before polling day on October 14.