Nationals’ stance on Indigenous voice a ‘slap in the face to black people’, Aboriginal leader says

Laura Hand-Ross, chair of the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council, says rejection of a voice to parliament could feed into racism and discrimination against the Indigenous community. Photograph: Fleur Connick/The Guardian

The National party’s decision to oppose to an Indigenous voice to parliament has been condemned by a prominent Deniliquin Aboriginal leader as “a slap in the face to black people”.

Laura Hand-Ross, a Wamba Wamba and Mutthi Mutthi woman and the chair of the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council, said the Nationals’ stance was an insult and had caused disquiet in the local community.