Voice to Parliament: Labor senator compares losing referendum to human rights abuses in China
Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson believes Australia will lack integrity to criticize China for its human rights violations if the Voice to Parliament referendum fails.
The Labor senator, an elder of the Yawuru people, made the blunt claim during his first interview since taking a leave of absence from parliament in April to receive medical treatment for an illness.
It comes as recent polls show declining support for the Voice to Parliament, with the Yes campaign hoping to boost numbers ahead of the referendum.
Australians will vote on whether to recognize First Nations people in the constitution by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vote in parliament sometime between October and December this year.
Senator Dodson says Australia ‘stands to lose’ and there would be a devastating perception of the country on a global scale if the referendum were not successful.
Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson (pictured) believes Australia will lack integrity to criticize China for its human rights violations if the Voice referendum fails
“It’s not just the first peoples: our nation will lose in the eyes of the international community,” he told Nine newspapers.
“Our integrity with our neighbors will certainly be undermined — that is the Pacific. We will give ammunition to our enemies in other places, or people who oppose us internationally.’
“We will go through a process of asking why a simple thing cannot be accomplished in such a developed nation as ours.”
Senator Dodson said the country would be in no place to criticize China for its treatment of Uyghur Muslims or Tibetans if the referendum failed, as Australia would have “no integrity, absolutely no integrity.”
This comment sparked some controversy on social media, with Australians divided over whether it was an appropriate claim to make.
A number of Aussies applauded the Aboriginal elder for his blunt honesty and candor when it came to the importance of the Voice to Parliament.
“Of course Pat Dodson is perfect. Voice defeat will undermine Australia’s position on the world stage,” one user wrote.
“Dodson is absolutely right. The whole nation will be dwarfed if its referendum fails,” another noted.
A third said, “That sums things up pretty well… and of the Father of Atonement in this land. Over to you Australia. Let’s get this done. Vote yes.’
But others sharply criticized Senator Dodson for comparing it to Beijing’s human rights record.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has assured the public that this is a ‘modest’ request that will have no impact on the lives of most Australians, but will make a world of difference to the country’s most vulnerable.
His remarks were sharply criticized by social media users, with critics claiming it was bizarre to compare Australia to China’s human rights record if the referendum failed (pictured, Chinese President Xi Jinping)
“It is a pity that Pat Dodson compares the human rights situation in Australia with that in China. Try to fact check,” one user wrote on Twitter.
Another said: ‘It’s kind of rich to see that if the NO vote is decided by the Australian people, it’s akin to China’s human rights issues.’
“More emotional blackmail and shame-based ideas with absolutely no substance to support the Yes crowd,” a third added.
One commenter described the statement as “nonsense.”
Critics argued that a failed referendum came close to the human atrocities committed in China.
A shocking United Nations report last year found China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uighurs and other Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region could constitute crimes against humanity.
China has been accused for years of holding more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the far western region of Xinjiang.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of abusing Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the massive use of forced labor in internment camps.
Beijing has vehemently rejected the claims, insisting that it runs vocational training centers in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism.
The report is based on interviews with former detainees and others who know about conditions in eight separate detention centers in the region.
The authors suggest that China did not always provide information, saying that requests for some specific information “received no formal response.”
Human rights groups accuse Beijing of violations against Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang (pictured, a facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are held in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region)
The report also said that “there is credible evidence of reproductive rights violations from the coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017.”
It added that a lack of government data “makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the full extent of the current enforcement of these policies and associated reproductive rights violations.”
The report urged Beijing, the UN and the rest of the world to turn their sights to the situation described in Xinjiang.
Beijing has closed many of the camps, but hundreds of thousands continue to languish in prison on vague, secret charges.
Senator Dodson said that while he wouldn’t ‘despair’ if the Voice didn’t materialize, it would be a ‘big day of reckoning for Australians’.
However, the Father of Reconciliation remains hopeful that the yes vote will gain support as the debate moves from Canberra to the community.
The yes vote was supported by many companies and organisations, such as the major banks, commodities giants BHP and Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, Woolworths and Coles.
The main sporting codes – the AFL and NRL – have publicly supported the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, as have prominent figures in the media.
Senator Dodson explained that the advocacy of these groups, individuals and organizations was essential to the success of the referendum.
Senator Dodson denounced the No campaign, saying the leaders of the No vote were the “rump of the worst” and described them as “very loud” and “very pushy” (pictured, Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who is the leader is from Advance’s Fair Australia campaign)
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson (pictured) believes there should be more focus on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but Senator Dodson believes the Yes campaign should “connect both things together”
He also took the time to cover the No campaign, which was led by Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Indigenous leader Warren Mundine.
Senator Dodson said the No vote leaders were the “rump of the worst,” describing them as “very loud” and “very pushy.”
He expressed his opinion that ‘Australians are better’ than the leaders of the No campaign.
There has been some debate within the Yes campaign about whether more attention should be paid to constitutional recognition than to the advisory body.
Indigenous leader and voice architect Noel Pearson believes the campaign should lean more on constitutional recognition.
But Senator Dodson disagrees, saying the Yes campaign needed to “connect both things together” because he believes there’s no point in “selling people half a chocolate.”