Nationals declare they will oppose the 'Voice' referendum

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

The government’s bid to pass a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice in the constitution has been dealt a blow, with the Nationals announcing they will oppose it.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the party didn’t believe the Voice would “genuinely close the gap”. So it had come to the position “that we will not support the Voice to parliament”.

The party believed in “empowering local indigenous communities, giving them the power at a local level, not creating another layer of bureaucracy here in Canberra,” he told a news conference on Monday after the Nationals…

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