Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. The Voice, once established, will provide representations to the executive. The Prime Minister has suggested it would be a very brave government to disagree with the Voice. So if the Voice were to propose recognition of customary law—and let me provide an example of customary law. You can find this in the Ngarra book of law, speaking about marriage law. When a promised bride has reached sexual maturity, the promised husband may take her for his wife. A 40- or 50-year-old man has spent his life learning the Ngarra law. His new wife might only be 13 to 16 years old, and she'll be sexually mature, but she will not know much about the law. Yet when she marries him she has the right to learn from him all the laws that he knows that took him a lifetime to learn. But, if she breaks the marriage law, she must be speared through the leg. If the husband does not want to punish her then her mother or her brother or sister will punish her, perhaps by hitting her with a heavy nulla-nulla. In another section of this, it suggests that a married woman must not engage in extramarital affairs behind her husband's back, as it can be punished heavily, including by being beaten by her husband or death by sorcery. Would the Prime Minister then suggest it would be a brave government to disagree with representations made by the Voice should the Voice suggest recognising customary law?