Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has slammed both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton over their handling of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
Pearson broke his silence this week following Mr Albanese’s landslide election victory and said Mr Dutton had learned early on that the Voice was ‘a dog worth kicking’.
He accused the outgoing Opposition leader of attacking the Voice to gain short-term popularity but that his ‘hard-a** persona’ had ultimately made him unelectable.
He said Mr Albanese, on the other hand, had pulled off a remarkable win thanks to the speed at which he had distanced himself from the Voice following the referendum.
‘Albanese’s great achievement in this election was the dexterity with which he extricated himself from its liability, and recovered his prime ministership and electoral supremacy,’ Mr Pearson wrote for The n.
‘Houdini would have been impressed.’
He said the period between the referendum in October 2023 and the election this month was ‘the most forlorn in the history of Indigenous affairs’ with a drought of any policy or progress on closing the gap.
He claimed the government had become ‘paranoid’ that anything to do with Indigenous policy – ‘even subjects far removed from the Voice’ – would sink it.
‘Albanese and Labor had to run away fast from their association with the Voice and black fellas … without it … last Saturday’s result for Labor would not have been possible,’ Mr Pearson wrote.
Along with the prime minister and former Opposition leader, Mr Pearson was scathing in his opinion of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
He said Dutton and the Liberals had been told by political advisory firm CT Group that taking the centre and supporting the Voice would be beneficial to their campaign.
Dutton had even early on given the Indigenous Affairs portfolio to Voice advocate Julian Lesser. But the Nationals opposed it and Senator Price came out swinging.
He said the initial success of her stance ‘took the decision out of Mr Dutton’s hands’.
But he called her a ‘one-trick pony’ that had ‘served her purpose’ of turning the Voice debate on its head by ‘taking up the mantle against her own people’.
Senator Price has now defected to the Liberals as a leadership battle in Dutton’s absence threatens to blow apart the Coalition.
She is expected to run as Angus Taylor’s deputy.
Senior Nationals have accused the Northern Territory senator of being disloyal and putting her ambitions above the party.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie directed her anger at the Liberals, accusing them of actively recruiting Senator Price.
‘That is not the behaviour of trusted partners,’ she told Sky News.
While former prime minister Tony Abbott supported the move, some in the Liberals are concerned Senator Price could drag the party even further to the right.