Shadow Indigenous Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price questions Voice referendum remote polling practices

Shadow Indigenous Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has questioned the polling practices in remote areas of Australia, alleging Indigenous Australians are “manipulated”.

Price and prominent no campaigner Warren Mundine addressed the media on Saturday night after the no vote was declared to have won.

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Price made the comments after being questioned about the strong yes votes by some Indigenous communities.

“If you look at the Indigenous-dominated booths in places like Lockhart River, Palm Island, Mornington Island, Goodooga … overwhelmingly they voted yes in the referendum,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday evening.

In the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari, the no vote won by 58 per cent overall but the yes vote won in all but one remote mobile voting van.

Price said the way the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and NT Electoral Commission (NTEC) carried out remote polling should be looked into.

Price suggested that people coming in to campaign and hand out how-to-vote cards “overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities” and suggested installing cameras in voting venues to prevent “manipulation”.

As a reporter was clarifying exactly what Price was suggesting about the AEC, Mundine interrupted to defend Price and slam the media.

He highlighted suicide and crime rates in remote communities, before asking: “These are the questions you come up with?”

“Wake up to yourselves and start asking real questions and making governments accountable,” Mundine said.

An AEC spokesperson defended the organisation’s voting practices.

“We were pleased to have delivered the largest remote voting offering ever with an appropriate 25 per cent increase in the number of votes taken in remote communities,” the spokesperson said.

“This was off the back of record rate of enrolment overall, as well as for Indigenous Australians.

“The ability to campaign at any polling place, including in remote communities, was of course the same for everyone.”

At the same press conference, Mundine called for “practical outcomes” for Indigenous Australians following the failed Voice referendum.

The referendum failing shows that Australians want to move “ahead as one people”, Mundine said.

He said all major political parties must now work together to address the issues at hand.

“Come together and start working forward for our nation and doing the hard work that we have to do to fix the issues within some of our Aboriginal communities,” Mundine said.

“The vast majority of Australians wanted practical outcomes, they don’t want symbolism, they don’t want nice ideological stuff.

“They want practical outcomes — Aboriginals to live longer and healthier, to have education, their kids going to school, to give businesses investments and jobs.

“If we got every kid to go to school every day and we got their parents jobs and working, there would be no gap.

“The beginning of that task is actually accountability, we spend billions of dollars every year and the closing the gap report and the productivity reports tell us we’re not closing the gap.”

Price said the Yes campaign failed to show how the Voice “would improve the lives of our most marginalised Australians”.

A Week of Silence announced

Indigenous leaders involved in the Yes campaign have announced a Week of Silence in response to the referendum result.

“That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason,” the group said in a statement.

“It was never in the gift of these newcomers to refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia.

“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country.

“Now is the time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome.

“Much will be asked about the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result.

”The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question.

“To our people we say: do not shed tears. This rejection was never for others to issue.

“The truth is that rejection was always ours to determine.

“The truth is that we offered this recognition and it has been refused.

”We now know where we stand in this our own country. Always was. Always will be.

“We will not rest long. Pack up the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Fly our flags low.”

The group then called for a Week of Silence to grieve and reflect, which began on Saturday night.