Key Points
- Former National Party MP Andrew Gee has criticised the Coalition's opposition to the Voice to Parliament.
- He was part of a referendum panel discussion held on day three of the Garma Festival.
- It comes supporters say the referendum won't be delayed despite polling showing sliding support for the Voice.
Former Nationals MP Andrew Gee has taken aim at the Coalition's 'no' position on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, saying it will lead them to "political ruin" if the proposal is rejected at the referendum.
Gee, the MP for the NSW seat of Calare, now sits as an independent after he when it revealed that it would oppose the Voice.
He appeared on a panel with other Voice supporters from across the political aisle on Sunday during day three of l which discussed, among other things, opposition to , why a referendum should be held amid signs of sliding support.
"If the conservative side of politics thinks that opposing the Voice in the way that they are... labelling it Orwellian or saying that it will re-racialise Australia. If people think that is the way to political salvation, they have rocks in their head," Gee said on Sunday
"That's the road to political ruin".
Gee said he was "confident" the Voice would be approved at the referendum, but warned that it would be disastrous for "the conservative side of politics" if it wasn't.
"They will be seen by a large section of the community as reconciliation wreckers... but at the end of the day the party hard-heads are going to sit down... and they're going to say, 'well where are these seats going to come from and where is the path to victory?'."
He said it would leave the Coalition with little chance of winning seats back from more progressive "teal" independents to whom it lost a number of previously safe seats at last year's federal election.
"Politically, I think it is the road to ruin for them... they will have lost that traditional liberal base, a large swathe of it, that has always carried them into power," he said.
"You can't just alienate those voices and think you're going to roll back into government with some of the drivel coming out on the Voice at the moment from that side."
Neither Opposition leader Peter Dutton nor his deputy Sussan Ley, travelled to the Garma Festival
The Opposition insists the Voice would be racially divisive and ineffective, but supports local and regional Voices legislated by parliament — a stance Prime Minister in his Garma Festival speech on Saturday.
Labor MP Gordon Reid (third from left), Liberal MP Julian Leeser (second from right), and independent MP Andrew Gee (right) during the Bunggul traditional dance during the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory on Friday. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
The 'no' vote is running ahead of 'yes' at 56 per cent to 44 per cent nationally, according to the poll of more than 1,000 respondents — the latest to show .
Despite this, supporters remain confident the 'yes' vote will prevail. Albanese has ruled out delaying the referendum, saying on Saturday his government would "not kick the can down the road".
Asked why it is worth taking the risk, Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, a Yanyuwa woman who also appeared on Sunday's panel, said it was important to stay the course.
"The only poll I believe in is the poll that is going to deliver a yes vote... and I know that we just need to stay on course because that will be the circle that I think unites Australia."
Albanese told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday that he would announce the referendum date "in a couple of weeks". It will be and the prime minister has already ruled out September and December.
Opposition to the Voice has not only come from conservative quarters, but also progressives. Senator Lidia Thorpe — which is calling for . Thorpe now sits as an independent.
Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, a Yamatji-Noongar woman, said while on Sundays panel that she supported a Treaty, but a Voice was necessary in order to secure one.
"If we don't get this up, we are not going to move forward," Cox said.
- With the Australian Associated Press.
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