Price fails to back Dutton’s plan for referendum 2.0

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pledge to hold a second reconciliation referendum has been called into question after his Indigenous affairs frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price failed to declare support for the proposal.

Dutton said in an interview on Sunday that if the Voice referendum failed, and he won the next election, he would call another referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians but exclude a constitutionally protected Indigenous Voice.

Jacinta Price and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.Credit: AAP

The push for constitutional recognition was supported by many Indigenous leaders until last decade when the Uluru dialogues process rejected it on the basis it may not lead to practical benefits. This same process spawned the idea of a Voice advisory body, which Dutton argues is risky and too powerful.

Senator Price, a leading No campaigner, was asked several times on Thursday night if she backed a second referendum but declined to give clear support.

“There needs to be, obviously, further discussion as to a second referendum within party rooms and determinations made that brings everyone together in agreeance with that,” she said on Sky News.

“I’m all for process, and I’m very much consumed with the fact that we’re dealing with this referendum at the moment. And that, for me, is my priority.”

On Friday morning, Dutton was asked on ABC’s Radio National about Price’s comments and claimed it was “of course” the case that his frontbencher supported his position.

“I would sit down with the Labor Party and we would have, I believe, a sensible conversation… We would be able to, I believe, arrive at a form of words.”

Dutton said he understood and respected the strongly held views of the Indigenous community about the Voice. But he said that ultimately referendums were decided by the whole Australian community and the Voice was on track to fail.

“We live in a democracy where the majority of Australians will vote and they will decide the outcome of this referendum,” he said.

Marcia Langton addresses the National Press Club on Wednesday.Credit: James Brickwood

“Recognition I believe very much is supported by the majority of Australians. We live in a democracy where a majority of Australians have a say, and I reject the thought that a majority of Indigenous Australians don’t support recognition.”

Dutton did not commit to holding a referendum on recognition in his first term, saying he would put it to a nationwide vote only when it was likely to be successful.

“You go to a referendum when you believe it can pass,” Dutton said.

“I mean you can’t be pessimistic about it, but I believe that the prospect of getting that question up is very different than it was even three years ago, or 13 years ago when it might have first been proposed,” he said.

Indigenous academic Marcia Langton, a key figure in the Voice movement, said on Wednesday she would not work with Dutton on a second referendum, saying she was “not in the least” interested in this idea.

“There’s no point in a second referendum because it’s not what we want,” she said.

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