Jacinta Price issues tough message to Anthony Albanese as millions of Aussies struggle to make ends meet

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has unleashed on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the two year anniversary of the unsuccessful Voice to Parliament.

Some 60 per cent of Australians voted ‘No’ to Albanese’s proposal to enshrine an Aboriginal advisory body in the constitution at a referendum in October 2023. 

The Liberal senator, who was a key player in the No campaign, claimed the prime minister had become ‘fixated’ on the Voice and ignored more pressing issues. 

‘From the moment he became Prime Minister, Mr Albanese refused to be upfront with Australians about the Voice,’ she said.

‘He wasted $450million of taxpayers’ money as he yearned for his own Paul Keating Redfern moment and to ink his name in the history books. 

‘Mr Albanese should have been focused on Australians’ number-one concern: the cost-of-living crisis. 

‘But because he wasn’t, Australians have paid the price for the Albanese Government’s inattention.

‘Mr Albanese was the author of this dark and divisive chapter in our country’s history.’

Price said Albanese was the author of a dark and divisive chapter in Australia’s history

Price took aim at the ‘activists’ still pushing to bring the Voice into federal parliament, saying they wanted to ‘demonise British settlement in its entirety’. 

‘By falsely claiming our nation was founded on original sin, the activists seek to delegitimise the achievement of modern Australia,’ she said. 

She also criticised the Victorian government’s landmark move to introduce a treaty bill in parliament, which would establish the Gellung Warl, a representative body for Indigenous Australians.

‘Despite Australians voting “No” to Voice, Treaty and Truth-telling, certain Labor governments and leaders still won’t take “No” for an answer and are pressing ahead with such goals,’ she continued. 

‘Of course, all fair-minded and decent Australians want to see practical improvements to address Indigenous disadvantage.

‘But those improvements will not be achieved by more bureaucracy; by symbolic gestures like the performative Acknowledgement of Country… or by acquiescing to activists whose objectives remain reparations and segregation under the guise of “treaty” and “truth-telling”.’

The senator maintained the federal government needs to ‘get the basics right’, focusing on crime, safer communities, education and health and home ownership.

‘We will also not improve the lives of disadvantaged Indigenous Australians until our country stops romanticising traditional culture,’ she said.

Price, who was key in the No campaign, said Australians want to see practical improvements to address Indigenous disadvantage but not with more bureaucracy (stock image)

‘Within that culture still exists outdated patriarchal beliefs that are still prevalent in many Indigenous communities.’

The prime minister’s office declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail.

But Uluru Dialogue co-chairs Pat Anderson and Megan Davis said that two years on, the Voice status quo remains.

‘First Nations people still have no voice, and this manifests in the relentless and unyielding gap in disadvantage,’ they said in a statement.

‘Many mobs are still struggling with the fundamental building blocks of a dignified human life – housing, water, electricity and violence to name a few.’

Ms Davis said despite the pause in momentum at a national level, communities across the country have spent the past two years regrouping and refocusing.

‘Change in this country takes time – decades in our case – but history tells us it always begins with persistence,’ she said.