Indigenous Voice to Parliament Yes campaigner reveals he is in ‘furious agreement’ with No advocate Jacinta Price on many issues

By William On Jul 23, 2023

Indigenous MPs advocating for the No camp should remember that their own vote cannot do what a Vote for Parliament would do, says a leading Yes campaigner.

Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson acknowledged there was more work to be done to convince Australians to vote yes as a new poll casts doubt on the referendum.

“We need to be at the train stations, we need to be in the town halls, we need to meet people in the shopping centers and we need to call on the better angels of Australian nature,” he told Sky News.

On the issues facing Indigenous Australians and closing the gaps, Mr Pearson admitted that he and No’s leading campaign leaders, Senators Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine, were ‘furiously in agreement’ on many of the issues.

Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson acknowledged there was more work to be done to convince Australians to vote yes as a new poll casts doubt on the referendum

But where they differ is in the solutions.

‘ (Senator Prize) just don’t believe that a structure like the Voice will be a solution,” he said.

“But the problem is that she and any other native parliamentarian cannot perform the functions of a vote, no matter how good they are.

“We’ve had a lot of Indigenous politicians now, not least in the Northern Territory. We’ve had politicians representing communities for over 20 years.

“People like me and Warren (Mundine), Warren says, ‘We already have a voice, I’ll speak for them.’ Well, there’s a limit to that.’

When asked what The Voice would look like, Mr Pearson pointed to the work of Indigenous academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, and the model of local and regional voices that feed national consultancies.

Speaking on the ABC, Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed with the local and regional model, but did not want The Voice to be bound by constitutional recognition.

Ms Ley renewed the opposition’s call for the government to split the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and legislate the Voice instead.

“Unnecessary bureaucracy would go hand in hand with a constitutionally anchored vote. We said that’s risky. We said it is unknown. We’ve said it’s divisive. And we said it’s permanent,” she said.

The No camp has argued that a constitutionally entrenched body is legally risky and has questioned whether the Voice could advise the government on AUKUS, or change Australia Day.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this week that the Yes campaign needed to be more vigorous to take her case to voters. He indicated that there would be an election campaign-style blitz leading up to the vote to win over undecided voters – expected around mid-October

Mr Pearson said such suggestions were ‘lurid misrepresentations’.

“I don’t see how a nuclear submarine is a matter related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” he told Sky News.

“Who’s going to listen to them when they say we need dot-dot paintings on the side of the new nuclear submarine.”

It comes as a new poll published in the Nine Newspapers on Sunday suggested The Voice was headed for defeat, with a majority of NSW voters suggesting they would vote no for the first time.

Mr Pearson warned that a protracted campaign could be ‘too long’ and urged voters not to use the referendum as a mechanism to send a message to Mr Albanese.

“I don’t want to burden the public discourse with this for three or four months.”

But he acknowledged that The Voice would succeed only if the “Yes” camp ran a positive campaign.

It should be about friendship. That’s how we’re going to win. We are not going to win with trolls,” Mr Pearson said in response that Mr Mundine had considered suicide over online abuse.