Days after Voice vote, Peter Dutton waters down Indigenous recognition commitment

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Coalition leader Peter Dutton has talked down his commitment to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution just days after the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, saying Australians are “probably over the referendum process for some time”.Dutton was a strident opponent of the Voice, but argued during the campaign that Indigenous people should be in a purely symbolic form.He on that topic in September, a position that appeared to put him at odds with the Nationals and Coalition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jactina Nampijinpa Price.On Monday, days after , Dutton walked back his commitment.

Jacinta Price wouldn’t reveal whether Peter Dutton consulted her on the idea before airing it publicly. Source: AAP / Jono Searle

“Look, all of our policy … is going to be reviewed in the process that (Coalition spokeswoman for child protection and the prevention of family violence) Kerrynne Liddle] and Jacinta will lead now. I think that’s important, but I think it’s clear the Australian public is probably over the referendum process for some time,” he told reporters.

Australians soundly rejected the Voice on Saturday, all states and the NT voting No. The majority of Indigenous people voted Yes.

The result continued a trend, with no individual states having voted for a proposed change to the constitution since 1984.Dutton insisted Australians had not rejected their Indigenous countrymen, and blamed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“Quite the opposite; people want to support in a practical way, those living in regional and remote areas,” he said.

“But people have roundly rejected the proposition of the Voice. The prime minister embarked on a divisive path.”

Catchment areas where Indigenous Australians made up more than half of voters are thought to have backed the Voice by over 60 per cent, while nearly three-quarters of voters in Price’s NT community of Yuendemu voted Yes.

Deputy prime minister Richard Marles conceded the path towards constitutional reform was closed.”This is the voice of the Australian people. We need to respect that and as a government, we do,” he told Channel 7’s Sunrise.

“We won’t be moving forward with constitutional reform now, that’s clearly what has been expressed by the Australian people. I think moving forward, our focus needs to be on really putting an even greater effort on Closing the Gap and on Reconciliation. I don’t take yesterday or the weekend’s vote as any vote against those objectives.”