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

You only have to look back through the miles and miles of publications that make these allusions to race. Marcia Langton is certainly on your committee, is she not? It's right there in front of you. It's part of the discourse of this nation right now, and you're not going to attempt to shut me down in this conversation right now and suggest this isn't being said, when we absolutely know it is. Again, is this government suggesting that, through this Voice, all Australians of Indigenous heritage, whether that's someone like my mother, who is nothing but Warlpiri—in fact, she did her ancestry DNA and there was nothing else involved, except she comes from here. Then there are those who can't even be recognised by communities—we won't mention any names, Bruce Pascoe—but can be recognised as Indigenous in this country, who will have the opportunity to speak on behalf of those like my mother, on issues that supposedly relate specifically to us. We know that everything that gets debated in these chambers relates specifically to us because we're Australian citizens. Is this government suggesting that because of our heritage—let's not call it race, because it's sensitive for some—we are inherently disadvantaged to the point that we require an enshrined voice to parliament without detail?

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Before I give you the call, I remind all senators in the chamber that it is now very late. It's easy for people to start to say things that they might not have said earlier in the day. Let's all try to keep the debate as respectful as possible. Minister?