Jacinta Price rails against the Voice and says Aboriginal Australians don’t need it to succeed – as Yes and No campaigners clash on the streets
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has told hundreds of ‘No’ supporters in Perth that she ‘didn’t need a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament’ to achieve what she has.
The Northern Territory Country Liberals Senator, and prominent ‘No’ campaigner, stepped off the plane on Monday evening and headed straight to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Center (PCEC), where she headlined a major campaign event less than two weeks after 14 October. referendum.
“We don’t want a future where our children aren’t proud to call themselves Australian… that’s not the Australia we grew up with,” Senator Price said after receiving a standing ovation at PCEC’s Riverside Theater.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price speaks at Voice to Parliament No Rally at the Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, on Monday evening. Photo: NCA NewsWire/Philip Gostelow.
“These companies are being funded to do reconciliation, while the rest of us are just wandering around trying to be reconciled,” she said, referring to companies like the major supermarkets and sporting codes that have thrown their support behind the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Senator Price then listed her achievements, most notably serving as a councilor for Alice Springs, and her current role as Minister for Shadow Aboriginal Affairs under Peter Dutton.
“We absolutely did not need a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament to achieve these things,” she said.
“We need to restore the structures that already exist, rather than muddying the waters and adding even more bureaucracy and shoving it into our constitution.”
Senator Price concluded her speech with another standing ovation.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine (right) ended their event with a group photo with their supporters. Photo: NCA NewsWire/Philip Gostelow.
REFERENDUM ‘MOST IMPORTANT’ IN AUSTRALIA’S HISTORY: MONDINE
Earlier, fellow prominent ‘No’ campaigner Warren Mundine called the upcoming vote the “most important in Australian history”.
‘Do we want a country divided on the basis of race? Or do we want a country that all comes together… to be our better selves, an Australia that welcomes people from all over the world?’ Mr. Mundine asked the crowd, speaking before Senator Price.
‘The Yes campaign focuses on the past… but we are talking about now.
“I encourage everyone to follow Australians, help on that day and vote no to division.”
Protesters outside Voice to Parliament gather at the Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. Photo: NCA NewsWire/Philip Gostelow
‘YES’ PROTESTERS ROCK RALLY
A powerful but modest group of “Yes” protesters showed up to demonstrate against the rally before it started.
A group of at least 40 mostly young “Yes” supporters denounced the demonstrations as they walked to the PCEC ahead of the main event, with slogans such as “two, four, six, eight, racist nonsense, racist hatred.”
Most of the ‘No’ crowd was unfazed by the noisy barrage sent their way, but there was a significant counter-protest trying to drown out the ‘Yes’ demonstrators, with a line of about ten police officers between them in.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about… you don’t have the numbers!” shouted a man in a “No” shirt, who had inexplicably been given a megaphone.
Among those standing guard for the ‘No’ side were at least three members of the nationalist Australia First Party.
However, the number of ‘Yes’ protesters so far has not been matched by their counterparts in Adelaide and Brisbane at similar ‘No’ events.
Supporters without the right to vote, with the police pitted against the largely student demonstrators. Photo: NCA NewsWire/Philip Gostelow
The meeting was organized by Fair Australia, the arm of conservative lobby group Advance Australia which promotes the ‘no’ vote.
The event also coincides with the opening of pre-poll voting in Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Hundreds of ‘no’ voters poured into the PCEC’s Riverside Theater to hear Senator Price and Mr Mundine speak, numbers almost on par with similar gatherings in Adelaide and Brisbane.
At the event in Brisbane on Wednesday night, a crowd of ‘Yes’ supporters also showed up to protest, chanting and labeling those in attendance as ‘racist’.
Senator Price then told the cheering crowd of more than a thousand people that the country should never have been subjected to ‘such a divisive referendum’.
“Our prime minister should never have put us on this path in the first place,” she said.
“For some time now, we as a nation have been under attack by people who want to believe that we are made up of two kinds of people: that we are either oppressed or we are oppressors.
“We’re told we’re a terrible, racist country… these are absolute lies.”
Despite a loud display of force from both sides, there was no violence. Photo: NCA NewsWIRE/Philip Gostelow
Similar scenes were seen at the Fair Australia meeting in Adelaide on September 18.
WA Police would not be involved in their operational plans if there were protests at the Perth rally.
“Members of the community have the right to protest peacefully and lawfully, but if violations of the law are identified, police will respond accordingly,” a police spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a volunteer army of ‘Yes’ campaigners are expected to target Perth in the remaining days before the referendum.
More than 120 “Yes” events are planned across the metro area, including door knocking, cold calling, roadside signs and handing out flyers at major transit locations.
Pre-poll voting will begin in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia from Tuesday, due to public holidays in those states on Monday.