Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s brutal response to the Yes campaign after it slammed ‘shameful’ No voters – and the BIG problem with its open letter that targeted millions of Aussies
EXCLUSIVE
One of the most outspoken No campaigners in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum has dismissed the Yes side’s ‘lies’ written in an open letter.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was among those targeted by the anonymous statement which said the 61 percent of Australians who voted no had committed a “shameful act”.
The controversial letter – shared by former Labor senator Nova Peris and activist Allira Davis – said: “Australia is our country… It is the legitimacy of the non-Indigenous occupation in this country that demands recognition, not the other way around.”
But Ms Nampijinpa Price, who has both Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic ancestry, said “Australians made it clear during the referendum vote that they do not want to be divided along the lines of race.”
‘The result was a rejection of the Voice body – which the authors (of the letter) failed to refer to – and not a rejection of recognition, nor of the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in the history of our country,” she said.
Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) was among those targeted by the anonymous statement which said 61 per cent of Australians who voted no had committed a “shameful act”.
“It was not a rejection of anyone’s right to be heard, but rather an affirmation of every Australian’s equal right to be heard.”
The senator also noted that no one had added his or her name to the Yes campaign statement.
“This anonymous letter is a cynical attempt to keep race in the national conversation,” she said.
“It is a clear example of the division and disharmony that the Vote would have brought and is a continuation of the lies spread by the Yes campaign over the past 12 months.”
The open letter claims to be ‘the collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organizations who supported Yes’.
But Ms Nampijinpa Price rejected the idea that they are representative of the wider views.
“The referendum result clearly shows that the anonymous so-called ‘leaders’ do not represent the views of all Indigenous Australians,” she said.
“It is paternalistic and wrong for anyone to claim they have the ability or authority to speak on behalf of all Australians of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.”
The controversial letter was shared by former Labor senator Nova Peris (pictured) and activist Allira Davis
The senator lashed out at the fact that the letter was issued without any signature by anyone, saying: “If you believe in something, you put your name on it.
“If the authors of this statement really believed in its contents, they would not hide behind anonymity.”
The open letter, which followed a “week of silence” by prominent Yes campaigners, also claimed its writers “have a justice agenda in pursuit of our First Nations rights that urgently need a voice – we will continue to follow the law and our ways.” , as our elders and forefathers have done’.
Ms Nampijinpa Price responded: “We must move away from this divisive rhetoric and unite as one Australia, because whether of Indigenous descent or not, this country belongs to all Australians.”