The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, has questioned the impartiality of the Australian Electoral Commission’s delivery of remote polling.
Price also suggested people handing out how-to-vote cards “overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities”, seeking to counter the fact many Indigenous communities had voted yes to a voice to parliament.
The leading no campaigner Warren Mundine defended Price’s remarks with an extraordinary spray at the media to “wake up to yourselves and start asking real questions and making governments accountable”.
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On Saturday evening the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told reporters in Canberra that “if you look at the Indigenous-dominated booths in places like Lockhart River, Palm Island, Mornington Island, Goodooga … overwhelmingly they voted yes in the referendum”.
Lingiari, the electorate covering Alice Springs and remote areas of the Northern Territory, voted 58% against the voice to 42% in favour but the yes vote won in all but one remote mobile voting team.
Asked before those results had been returned if Indigenous Australians from remote booths that Price represents as a Northern Territory senator would vote yes or no, Price told reporters in Brisbane “it will be interesting to see”.
“One thing we do know is the way in which Indigenous people in remote communities are exploited for the purpose of somebody else’s agenda,” she said.
“I think we probably need to look at the way the AEC, the [Northern Territory Electoral Commission], conduct themselves when it comes to remote polling at elections, at referendums.
“I think we should take away those who come in with their how-to-votes, unions that come in and overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities.
“There is a lot that goes on in remote communities that the rest of Australia doesn’t get to see. If we had cameras in those remote communities, at those polling booths, Australia would see what goes on in within those communities. There’s a lot of manipulation.”
Asked if an allegation was being made against the AEC, Mundine intervened, shouting, “you know what, people are committing suicides in these communities”.
“People are being raped and beaten and this is the questions you come up with!?
“We had a vote tonight that said Australians want to get things done,” he said.
Mundine urged the media to “stop talking about all this other nonsense and start talking about kids … who are as young as nine and 10 who commit suicide in their communities and those kids who get raped”.
Guardian Australia contacted the AEC for comment.
In August the AEC announced the voice referendum would see more voting services delivered to remote communities than any other vote in Australia’s history.
The AEC commissioner, Tom Rogers, said it was “confident we’ll be visiting approximately 35% more remote communities…
2023-10-14 18:55:16
Source from www.theguardian.com
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