Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Labor MPs of gagging figures who are sceptical of the Indigenous Voice to parliament after he was blocked from appearing at a parliamentary inquiry
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Labor MPs of gagging figures who are sceptical of this year’s referendum, after he was blocked from appearing at a key parliamentary inquiry into the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament.
“Why gag people?” Abbott told this masthead. “I can’t believe that such a big change is being rushed through with so little scrutiny. By refusing to hear people with insights into how government actually works, this is becoming a kind of sneak attack on the Constitution. “As a former prime minister, Mr Abbott has a very large public profile, his views are well known, and he’s made a detailed written submission to the inquiry,” the Labor senator said.
Jesuit priest Frank Brennan, a long-time reconciliation advocate, will appear at the inquiry on Monday and suggest changing the constitutional alteration to permit the Voice to lobby ministers but not bureaucrats. He hopes that change would diminish concerns that the Voice would be involved in thousands of administrative decisions made by governments, potentially making Liberal moderates like Julian Leeser, Simon Birmingham and Andrew Bragg more comfortable with the Voice proposal.
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