Nationals split as war of words erupts over the Voice

WA Nationals party leader Mia Davies told the ABC she had spoken with Littleproud and said her division had a different view.

“We can explore the idea of a Voice,” she said, adding that the state conference had passed a motion of support for the Uluru statement from the heart, which proposed the Voice.

The federal Nationals’ decision was furiously condemned by Pearson during an interview on ABC Radio National, in which he excoriated the junior Coalition partner as a “squalid little political party” and Littleproud a man of “little pride”.

Pearson, a longtime champion of constitutional recognition of First Nations people, said he was “very surprised” by the decision, saying the Nationals had been among the most supportive of the Voice within the Parliaments ranks until recently. He said of former leader Michael McCormack: “you could not find somebody more articulate and supportive of the Voice”.

But on Tuesday, McCormack backed the party position, saying the government had had six months and “they haven’t made clear who will be elected to the voice, how candidates are chosen, or what difference it will make to indigenous people’s lives”.

However, he left open the door to revising the position.

“If Labor comes out in the new year and says here are the details, here is the clarity, this is what we will put to the public and this is how it will close the gap, as well as not usurping those 11 Indigenous people already elected to parliament, we could have another look at it.”

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Liberal leader Peter Dutton told his party room they would wait for more information before reaching a position.

Tasmania Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who co-chairs the parliamentary friends of the Voice, said she was “quite open to supporting it and I’m taking the Uluru statement in the spirit in which it has been offered”.

“We [the Liberals] haven’t formed a position yet, we will wait and see what comes. I’m not sure why the Nationals have gone early, personally I don’t know that there is enough information to form a judgement.”

“I actually think the symbolism [of the Voice] is important too. It has to be backed by action, but the symbol is not unimportant in itself.”

Pearson attributed the turnaround in the Nationals to the influence of Price, a Warlpiri-Celtic woman who entered parliament at the election and vehemently opposes the Voice.

He accused Price of being caught up in a “tragic redneck celebrity vortex” fuelled by right-wing think tanks who were using her as a “blackfella to punch down on other blackfellas”.

Price, who worked as the Indigenous program director at the conservative thinktank the Centre for Independent Studies before entering parliament, condemned the remarks as “ugly” saying she was “no stranger to attacks from angry men who claim to speak on behalf of Aboriginal Australia”.

“We didn’t need a crystal ball to know that if you do not agree with the Voice to parliament, you will be called names, be accused of racism, bigotry and it will also be suggested that you are incapable of thinking for yourself,” she said in a statement.

Dean Parkin, the director of From the Heart which is campaigning for the Voice, said the Nationals’ statement was “very strange and obviously pre-emptive”.

“We expect politicians to do their jobs and consider proposals on their merits. There is no proposal before the Nationals at the moment, so it’s a premature statement that has been made,” he said.

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