I’m a natural cynic, but was moved to read NT Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s maiden speech to the Senate. In an inspiring address that contained touches of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Margaret Thatcher, Senator Price (Country Liberal Party) enunciated her vision, convictions, and heartfelt beliefs. I quote just a few examples of it, and encourage readers to Google it in full. Some people may not agree with it, but it was powerful.
Senator Price queried the need for a Voice to Parliament. “No, Prime Minister, we don’t need another handout, as you have described the Uluru Statement to be. No, we Indigenous Australians have not come to agreement on this statement, as you have also claimed. It would be far more dignifying if we were recognised and respected as individuals in our own right who are not simply defined by our racial heritage but by the content of our character.” (Shades of Martin Luther King there.)
“I am a proud Warlpiri Celtic Australian woman who did not and has never needed a paternalistic government to bestow my own empowerment upon me. We have proven for decades now that we do not need a Chief Protector of Aborigines. I have got here, along with 10 other Indigenous voices … to this 47th Parliament of Australia like every other parliamentarian: through hard work and sheer determination.” (Margaret Thatcher there.)
She went on to advise Albo to “listen to everyone and not just those who support your virtue-signalling agenda but also to those you contradict”.
“We see two glaring examples this week of this failure to listen. We see the news that grog bans will be lifted on dry communities, allowing the scourge of alcoholism and the violence that accompanies it free reign, despite warnings from elders of those communities about the coming damage. Coupled with this, we see the removal of the cashless debit card that allowed countless families on welfare to feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demand from alcoholics, substance abusers, and gamblers in their own family group.”
Senator Price said these two measures are guaranteed to worsen the lives of Indigenous people, and then reminded people that 30 per cent of Australians were born overseas, and that this is one of our greatest strengths as a nation.
“My elders taught me that any child who is conceived in our country holds within them the baby spirit of the creator ancestor from the land. In other words, Australian children of all backgrounds belong to this land. They, too, have Jukurrpa Dreaming, and they, too, are connected spiritually to this country. This is what I know true reconciliation to be.
“These teachings cannot be delivered through legislation, nor through any corporate reconciliation action plan. These teachings are about what it means to be a modern human in an ancient land.” (Nelson Mandela there.)
She concluded: “Australian wati yungurlipa mapirri warrki-jarrimi – in other words, for all Australians.”
Impressive. We are lucky to have her in our parliament.
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