Cracks Grow in Australian Opposition Over Indigenous Vote Stance

(Bloomberg) -- Divisions are growing within Australia’s main opposition party over its decision to vote against Indigenous recognition in an upcoming national referendum after a key lawmaker quit the shadow cabinet.

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Shadow attorney general Julian Leeser, who’s also the center-right Liberal Party’s representative for Indigenous affairs, told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday that he was quitting the party’s front bench. He cited leader Peter Dutton’s decision last week to campaign against the so-called Voice to Parliament.

Australians will vote before December on whether to create a new advisory body to the nation’s lawmakers, which will be composed of Indigenous Australians. It would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders included in the constitution for the first time.

Leeser has long been an advocate for the advisory body and now plans to campaign for the “yes” vote. Ken Wyatt, who was minister for Indigenous Affairs when the Liberals were last in government, and the nation’s first minister of First Nations heritage, last week quit the party following Dutton’s announcement.

“I believe that better policy is made when the people who are affected by it are consulted on it,” Leeser said on Tuesday.

What to Know About Australia’s Indigenous ‘Voice to Parliament’ Vote

Public polling currently shows Australians are narrowly in favor of the Voice, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made it a major part of his policy platform. Indigenous Australians have some of the worst health and education outcomes in the country, are more likely to be imprisoned, leave school early and die young.

Dutton last week said that he didn’t believe the Voice advisory body would have a practical impact on the lives of Indigenous Australians.

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