ANTI-Voice campaigner Warren Mundine has accused Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney of being out of her depth and believing Aboriginal problems can be fixed by "waving a magic wand".
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The former Liberal Party election candidate made the attack in Wodonga on Sunday July 30 while he was the guest speaker at a forum organised by the National Civic Council.
Mr Mundine was speaking at The Cube, the same venue at which Ms Burney, last Tuesday, spruiked the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
He said Ms Burney had been fortunate not to experience Indigenous violence like him but she did not have the "commonsense to work out how to fix these things".
"She thinks that you can just form another committee, it waves a magic wand and...everyone's going to come out of their houses, singing and dancing like the birds in a Walt Disney movie," Mr Mundine said.
"I'm sorry to talk like this because she's a nice person, I've had dinner with her and stuff like that, but she's out of her depth, quite frankly she's out of her depth."
![Warren Mundine speaks to the audience from a lectern at The Cube in Wodonga as National Civic Council members watch on. Picture by Tara Trewhellla Warren Mundine speaks to the audience from a lectern at The Cube in Wodonga as National Civic Council members watch on. Picture by Tara Trewhellla](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XJLgPnEdnKaFugZzKyL6Sw/bb562261-4d2b-469e-90c6-1d1616df7b6b.jpg/r0_0_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A near capacity crowd of 400, of mostly over 55 year-olds, heard Mr Mundine argue why voters should oppose the Voice referendum.
The former Dubbo deputy mayor argued a Voice body would - not help tackle social problems which needed grassroots action; would be divisive; would lead to High Court decision-making: was unnecessary given existing Aboriginal representative bodies.
"We've always had a voice, in fact today we've got the Coalition of the Peaks which sits at the national cabinet with the prime minister and the premiers and the chief ministers," Mr Mundine said.
"Then you have all the state and territory things that are happening now, so we've always had a voice, no doubt about it.
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"In fact when I to go to Canberra, and I go there quite often, I'm tripping over blackfellas, there's representatives of education groups, there's representatives of health groups, there's representatives of business groups, there's representatives of land councils and everything."
Mr Mundine said the Voice was a reverse of the 1967 referendum which saw Indigenous people included in the census and allowed federal laws to be made for them.
He said that vote encouraged a mindset of jobs and education, social stability and practical change, while the Voice fostered an outlook tied to grievance, historical wrongs and identity politics.
![Liberal MP Sussan Ley makes a point to the packed gallery at The Cube as she spoke before Warren Mundine addressed the audience. Picture by Tara Trewhella Liberal MP Sussan Ley makes a point to the packed gallery at The Cube as she spoke before Warren Mundine addressed the audience. Picture by Tara Trewhella](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XJLgPnEdnKaFugZzKyL6Sw/ceda6976-f41f-4db9-bc1c-2e41d2e5bb3e.jpg/r0_422_8256_5449_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The former Labor Party national president said he feared Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would "call us all a bunch of racists" if the Voice referendum failed.
"Let's say it's 60-40 and he starts calling people names and that then I think it's cost him his prime ministership," Mr Mundine said to cheers and applause.
Before Mr Mundine spoke, deputy federal Liberal Party leader and Farrer MP Sussan Ley addressed the audience, repeating her previous position of voting no with a "heavy heart" before accusing Mr Albanese of not having the courage of his convictions.
Referring to a radio interview, she said the PM answers included "don't ask me that question, oh that's not relevant, oh I don't want to talk about a treaty, aw we'll work it all out all afterwards".
"It's his pushing and shoving and hectoring and forcing Australians into a certain point of view and the point of view is not going to assist what we're all here for which is to see the best possible outcomes for Indigenous Australians," Ms Ley said.
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