Teen sparks clash over Voice to Parliament between Jacinta Price and Malarndirri McCarthy

The two sides of the Voice to Parliament debate have clashed face-to-face, following a question from a teenager who wants to know more about the Voice to Parliament referendum.

Schoolgirl Laura Strawberries asked the QandA panel, which included Country Liberal Senator for the NT Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and South Australian Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas, about the funding behind the referendum.

“Why should significant tax dollars be used to make this referendum happen, at the risk of the vote being merely token, as opposed to investing that money in indigenous communities through education and healthcare, which is likely to bring real positive change? would cause? she asked.

The first to answer the young girl’s question was Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, who said the voice was Indigenous people asking to “never cut their voices”.

“With every change of government there has been a change in policies around Aboriginal lives and as a result their lives have been turned upside down and they have had to start over with a new leader or a new government and then again, and again,” said them on the program.

“Even though we have spent millions and millions of dollars over the past few decades to solve many problems, something is not working, it clearly is not working.

“And so if the First Nations people ask us and invite Australians to do something that they think is at least part of the answer to a lot of the dispossession and tyranny of the question, they can do it.”

Her statement was strongly rejected by Senator Price, who spoke out against The Voice, who said the regular change of government was called “democracy” and something all Australians had to go through.

Senator Price then turned around and began attacking the “thousands” of taxpayer-funded organizations that “squander” Australian taxpayers’ money rather than alleviate the disadvantage,

“We have not sought out the gatekeepers that exist in the existing land councils, who control Aboriginal land and do not allow traditional owners to use their land to create economic development opportunities,” she said.

Senator Price and Senator McCarthy then went head to head, firing off statements on the Voice, with Stan Grant quipping that politicians are just “talking over each other.”

The question was then addressed by the Greens Senator for WA Jordan Steele-John, who said Australia “should be able to do both”.

“The value that I and the Greens see in enshrining this body in the constitution is the permanence that enshrining provides, as we have seen the advancing political realities on both sides to take the body out or replace it,” said he.

Senator Steele-John was nearly cut off by Senator Price who came in to talk about “permanent disadvantage” during his speaking time.