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Indigenous rights lawyers and prominent Aboriginal figures have criticised the government’s wary response to the Uluru statement released by the Referendum Council’s constitutional convention.
Federal conservatives Craig Kelly and George Christensen have already expressed opposition to the council’s call for a permanent “First Peoples voice” in the constitution, and yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said the idea was “overreach” and “something that will not be supported by the Australian people”. Institute of Public Affairs executive director John Roskam has branded the Uluru statement’s proposals “radical identity politics” and warned they “are unlikely to ever be accepted by the majority of the Liberal party”.
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Alex McKinnon, The Saturday Paper
