a loud voice against a Voice to Parliament

NT Senator Jacinta Price was the breakout star of Australia’s conservative political conference at the weekend where speakers sketched their staunch opposition to a Voice to Parliament.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Sydney featured two days of sessions on topics ranging from climate change denialism to Marcus Aurelius, with speakers including former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, and former Trump adviser Jason Miller.

The Voice to Parliament was the focus of the weekend with much of the first day dedicated to sessions making the case against it and with many speakers — both Australian and international — sharing their reservations.

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This case was spearheaded by Price, the new Country Liberal Party (CLP) senator who said the proposal for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous advisory body would create “racial separatism”. 

She got laughs when talking about a suggestion she made to Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong: “I put it to Wong that maybe we should co-design an Asian Voice to Parliament.”

On a panel with CPAC chairman Warren Mundine and Dr Anthony Dillon, Price argued that it was “privileged” Indigenous Australians who were pushing for a Voice. She implied that critics of the Voice would be labelled racist.

“If you vote ‘no’ you’ll be given a label, and it’s not true,” she said.

Later, Abbott reiterated his opposition to the Voice, saying that his successor, Malcolm Turnbull, was right when he (erroneously) called it a third chamber of Parliament.

Price was given the inaugural Freedom and Hope award, a prize given to someone who “truly represents the positive future that we aspire to”, CPAC Australia founder Andrew Cooper said.