Gary Johns is facing calls to resign from his position in the no campaign against the Indigenous voice referendum, after he was criticised for making “offensive” and “extreme” comments – including suggesting blood tests for welfare payments.
Recognise a Better Way, which opposes the proposal to enshrine a voice in the constitution, lists Johns as a member of “the Voice No Case Committee”.
Johns, a former federal Labor minister, is facing scrutiny over comments in his book titled The Burden of Culture: How to Dismantle the Aboriginal Industry and Give Hope to its Victims.
The book, published last year, lists 16 Ways to Save Lives and Overcome Aboriginal Colonisation, which includes abolishing Welcome to Country at events and establishing a new day called Intermarriage Day.
“It is possible to test Aboriginal lineage,” wrote Johns, a former charity commissioner. “If the current three-part test on Aboriginality is to remain, then, just as Aborigines insist in native title claims, blood will have to be measured for all benefits and jobs.”
Victorian Labor senator Jana Stewart, a Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman, said “these are outdated views, from over 100 years ago”.
“They do not reflect 2023 Australia.”
Stewart said it was “up to the no campaign to explain whether they think the author’s views are acceptable and if not why does he remain on their campaign committee”.
Johns and the Recognise a Better Way group have been contacted for comment.
But Johns told the Daily Telegraph the criticisms were based on an “outrageous misrepresentation” and people should read the book to form their own views.
The New South Wales state Liberal MP and shadow health minister Matt Kean said “both sides have a right to make their arguments with passion”.
“But Mr Johns’s views are beyond the pale. Mr Johns’s should step down from the No Campaign today,” Kean tweeted.
Federal Labor MP Andrew Charlton also joined the calls for Johns to resign.
“Both sides have a right to make their case, but Gary John’s views are offensive and have no place in modern Australia,” Charlton tweeted.
“Mr Johns should resign from his leadership position in the No campaign.”
The independent MP Monique Ryan also condemned Johns. “These views might be welcome in the One Nation partyroom, but they’re not welcome in this referendum,” she wrote on Twitter.
Johns was a minister in the Keating government but after leaving parliament served as a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
In 2017 the Turnbull government appointed Johns as the head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), a decision that attracted criticism from the sector.
Johns had previously criticised charities for conducting political advocacy, but he maintained when he was appointed that he was “neither friend nor foe” to the sector and he would apply the law.
Johns also met criticism in 2018 for refusing to back away from past comments that pregnant Indigenous women were being used as “cash cows” to obtain government benefits.
At a Senate committee hearing in 2018, Labor senator Jenny McAllister asked Johns if his own past statements could be taken to suggest that he had a negative bias towards Indigenous charities, and whether he disavowed those statements now. Johns answered: “Absolutely not.”
“I’m quite public, I’ve written for 30 years about a whole range of matters,” he said. “Why would I seek to disavow any of that?”
Johns quit the ACNC position shortly after the Albanese government’s election victory last year. Johns has appeared at several campaign events opposing the voice, including in Tamworth.
