Tony Nutt, the former federal director of the Liberal party and chief of staff to John Howard, has dismissed as “nonsense” and “bunkum” arguments against the Indigenous voice to parliament, a position at odds with the party and the former leader he served for a decade.
“It’s just, it’s practical, and it’s constitutionally safe,” he told a Liberal-dominated Wentworth for the Voice forum in Sydney’s east on Tuesday.
Discursive on the formation of Australia’s constitution, government bureaucracy and the voice’s potential composition and operation (to be decided by parliament), Nutt dismissed – diplomatically – some of the no arguments being made against the proposal.
“It [the voice] is practical: when you actually strip away the straw men and the scarecrows … you do wonder at some of the arguments and some of the positions put by others.”
He condemned as “nonsense” arguments such as suggestions the voice could dictate or manipulate Australian foreign policy.
“Do we really think that Penny [Wong] is going to be told what to do about Russia or China or America or whoever by people on the voice?” he said.
“When people tell you all of this stuff, it’s all guff, it’s bunkum, it’s designed to give messages to people in the wider electorate to persuade them to vote no.”
Nutt’s position on the voice is not new: he joined the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition earlier this year.
But his support for the voice is inescapably opposed to the federal parliamentary Liberal party, and that of his erstwhile boss, former prime minister John Howard, who has promoted a no vote, and urged opponents to “maintain the rage” against the proposal.
However, Nutt, a “platinum member” (as he described it) of the Liberal party, was careful not to criticise the party or its leaders, present or former, pointedly batting away questions about the federal parliamentary party’s opposition to the voice, saying he would not comment on personalities or political tactics.
But Nutt’s support for yes has won significant support from other Howard-era Liberal heavyweights.
Mark Textor, of the CT Group political consultancy (formerly Crosby Textor) posted online: “I entirely agree with my good mate and Liberal colleague of many years (Nutt) on this.”
At a Sydney rally at the weekend, the former Liberal premier of New South Wales Barry O’Farrell, wearing a yes T-shirt, decried “the lie that’s made that this is a woke, inner-city movement”.
“This is a mass movement by people who are united … all united for recognition to deliver a united, better and fairer Australia.”
Tuesday night’s event in Sydney, hosted by the independent member for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, attracted more than 200 people to the Diamond Bay Bowling Club.
Spender urged the yes-inclined crowd to support the voice as a “reasonable and modest” proposal to establish an advisory body that would benefit Indigenous Australians.
Julian Leeser, the Liberal member for Berowra on the other side of Sydney (but who started his political life as a councillor on Woollahra council) also urged a yes vote. A self-described “constitutional conservative”, Leeser said he was “usually a person on the no case for changes to constitution”, but argued the voice proposal was a “very safe proposal” that had been brought forward by – and enjoyed the overwhelming support of – Indigenous Australians.
Leeser’s support for the voice led him to resign as the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians when the federal parliamentary Liberal party chose to oppose it.
Gamilaroi man Geoffrey Winters, a former Liberal candidate in the seat of Sydney, urged Australia – “a country of good heart and great soul” – to vote yes, arguing the voice would have a profound benefit for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
