Liberal MP Julian Leeser has appealed to Australians to vote for the Voice to parliament,saying it will help transform remote Indigenous communities by tackling entrenched problems,as former prime minister Scott Morrison made a rare public intervention to urge a No vote.
In a heartfelt speech that addressed Coalition voters specifically,Leeser – the Liberal Party’s leading Voice advocate,who – said the body would eliminate the economic and social differences between Indigenous and other Australians,rather than creating two classes of Australian,as Dutton and other No advocates claim.
“The Voice will work on making our remote communities safer. It will work to rid communities of addictions from nicotine and alcohol to ice. It will work to get children in school and keep them there. It will work to address the terrible rates of infant mortality and renal failure in many Indigenous communities,” Leeser told parliament during the lengthy debate on legislation to enable the referendum.
“And it will work to create local jobs and industries so that we can break a culture of welfare dependency.”
“Some say the Voice will give Indigenous Australians a place of privilege. Does anyone really believe that Indigenous Australians occupy a place of privilege?”
He said most referendum debates make the “if it aint broke don’t fix it” argument.
“Normally,that is a valid and compelling argument. But the system is broken,” he said.
But Morrison,in a rare intervention in public debate over the constitutional change,warned the Voice would permanently create “different rights for one group of Australians over others,based solely on race”.
Morrison,who until Wednesday had spoken just twice in parliament since losing the prime ministership a year ago,said the “ill-defined” constitutional change would have the opposite effect of previous initiatives including the landmark 1967 referendum in which the Constitution was changed to give Indigenous Australians the same rights as all other Australians.