Voice can close economic gap for Indigenous Australians, says Julian Leeser

Julian Leeser says closing the gap is about ‘jobs, not welfare. It’s about universities not prisons.’ Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

The Liberal MP Julian Leeser says a voice to parliament is not about “special treatment or privileges” but about getting Indigenous Australians “to the same starting line that other Australians are at”.

Amid rising partisan rancour in the referendum debate, with his own side leading the charge for the no campaign, Leeser told parliament he supported the voice because it was a manifestation of “deeply Liberal and conservative ideas”.