Liberal MPs have condemned “abhorrent” and “revolting” commentary about Indigenous people aired at no campaign leader Warren Mundine’s CPAC conference, as pressure mounts on fellow anti-voice spokesperson Gary Johns.
Bridget Archer and Andrew Bragg, as well as the federal Nationals leader, David Littleproud, were critical of Johns – the president of the anti-voice group Recognise A Better Way – who claimed some people in Indigenous communities lived in a “stupor” and recommended they “learn English”.
Archer and Bragg, among the few Liberals to publicly support the voice, condemned Johns’ speech at the CPAC conference on Sunday.
“I find the comments abhorrent and they have no place in a respectful society,” Archer told Guardian Australia.
Albanese accuses Gary Johns of ‘failure’ to show respect to Indigenous Australians after offensive commentsRead more
“Freedom of speech should always be balanced with responsibility not to do harm to others. We ought to be able to have a debate about the voice without resorting to this kind of nasty, divisive commentary.”
Bragg, a senator from New South Wales and a longtime voice supporter, said “some of the comments are absolutely revolting and ridiculous”.
“I worry the key lessons of the 20th century are already being lost. Anyone familiar with the history of genocide knows how dangerous language can be,” he told Guardian Australia.
In Johns’ speech, he said: “If you’re not trying to get those people either out of that remote community or out of the stupor in which they live, or give them the tools to allow them adapt to life in the modern world, the world we inherited, then you’re doing wrong.
“Being practical is not the answer. You have to do practical things in the name of integration.”
Johns then claimed to quote no campaign leader Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s father.
“As Dave Price, Jacinta’s dad, has said to me often enough, ‘If you want a voice, learn English. That’s your voice’,” Johns said.
The CPAC conference, of which Mundine is chairman, was dominated by criticism of the Indigenous voice referendum. Mundine and Price, the leaders of the Fair Australia campaign from conservative political group Advance, were the headline speakers of the two-day conference. Other speakers included sitting Coalition MPs Barnaby Joyce, Bridget McKenzie, Keith Pitt, Alex Antic and Ted O’Brien, as well as the former prime minister Tony Abbott, the former Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop and the former Nationals leader John Anderson.
Mundine founded the Recognise A Better Way organisation, one of several groups opposing the referendum. Johns, the former Labor minister, is now president of that organisation.
Johns, Recognise A Better Way and CPAC Australia were contacted for comment.
On Monday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the NSW Liberal MP Matt Kean condemned Johns’ speech.
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Littleproud said Johns’…
2023-08-21 23:33:29
Post from www.theguardian.com
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