Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

PRICE () (): I want to address what I believe to be a complete failure of this chamber yesterday. A motion for reference to a committee of the matter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative organisations was voted down by one vote. All 30 of the noes denied vulnerable Australians who have been crying out to have their voices heard the chance for an inquiry of land councils and other Indigenous bodies—no surprise, though, that they came almost exclusively from the Labor government and the Greens. When last week I hosted a delegation of 22 Aboriginal community leaders right here in Canberra, no Labor or Green MP who voted no yesterday came to meet with them—not a single one. Not a single Labor MP in the building came to meet with them—not one. Not a single Green came to meet them—not one.

But one of the no votes—in fact, the deciding no vote—did meet with them. I refer to the so-called Independent senator for Canberra, who sat with three elders in his office and nodded along while they shared their concerns, while they made their case to him directly, while they used their voices to plead for help. But he did not listen. He thinks he knows best about who should have their voices heard and who shouldn't. We were simply asking for an inquiry to see what was really happening, and he would not even support that. Why? Because he claims he doesn't want to interfere with the voice referendum. What a joke! How's this for logic. The senator from Canberra doesn't want to listen to the voices of Aboriginal Australians in case it interferes with a campaign for a body that they claim is about Aboriginal voices. Shame on every single one of you who refuse to listen to these voices, and shame on every single one of you who don't want to listen to Aboriginal voices who have a differing view to your own.