Peter Dutton criticised over claim it is ‘racist’ to suggest Indigenous are affected by policies differently

Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton: ‘It’s actually a racist statement to say that an Indigenous person is impacted differently than a non-Indigenous person in relation to any area of public policy.’ Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Opposition leader Peter Dutton was “disingenuous” when he said it was “racist” to suggest Indigenous people are affected by policies differently, according to the co-chair of the Indigenous voice co-design group Tom Calma.

In an interview with youth-oriented podcast The Daily Aus, released on Monday, Dutton said it was “racist” to say that Indigenous people were affected differently by policies compared with people who were not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.