WA Liberals respond to Indigenous Voice to Parliament plans

The exact details of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament need to be made “crystal clear” before Australians are asked to participate in a referendum on the issue, according to WA Senator Michaelia Cash.

Federal Liberal deputy Sussan Ley also strongly hinted her party would oppose a vote on constitutional change that did not spell out how the long-talked about Voice would work.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used a speech at Garma Festival in the Northern Territory on Saturday to unveil the draft wording of a “yes” or “no” referendum question asking whether an Indigenous Voice should be enshrined in the constitution.

“We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple as ‘Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?’” Mr Albanese said.

He also revealed three draft sentences to be added to the constitution:

• There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to Parliament and the Executive Government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
• The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Responding to the proposal outside the WA Liberal State Conference on Saturday, Ms Cash pointed to the maiden speech of Senate colleague and Warlpiri-Celtic woman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price who slammed the Voice as a “virtuous act of symbolic gesture”.

“(Senator Pryce) made it very, very clear: there is no consensus amongst the indigenous communities in relation to a Voice,’ Ms Cash said.

“And as our deputy Federal leader has said, this is not a vanity project. This is serious constitutional reform and the details need to be made crystal clear.”

Ms Ley – attending the WA Liberal State Conference in place of Federal leader Peter Dutton – said it was “disappointing” debate about the Voice had been “politicised” by Mr Albanese.

“Constitutional reform has to be considered,” she said.

“It has to be careful and it has to be consultative.

“So headline statements and questions to get that media grab - fine. But you know, we’ll take our time to look at the detail.”

Pressed on whether the Liberals would only support a referendum question that laid out in detail how a Voice would function, Ms Ley said it was “too early” to say what her party’s position was.

“But we do need to know how this body would work,” she said.

“And one headline question proposed by the Prime Minister is not giving us the answer to that.

“How would the body be constituted? Who would participate in it? How would it work in practice and how would it address the real issues that indigenous women are calling for the government to (address)?”