Senator Nampijinpa Price talks Steve Price on The Bolt Report, Sky News

18 December 2023, 7:20pm AEDT

Subjects: PM’s 2023 Wrap Video, Post-Referendum Failure’s

STEVE PRICE
We all know now that 60% of Australians voted no to a change to our Constitution. Now it had the government's undivided attention for months it was the only thing we ever heard about. The Prime Minister was either on a plane traveling overseas or he was on television talking about the voice failed to address all the other important issues like electricity and the cost of living that's now coming back to bite him. But in the Prime Minister's very cute and well produced interview recap video. It's a topic key seem to have glossed over.

2023 Wrap Video Clip 

STEVE PRICE
What a crock. I mean, don't you hate those staged pieces like that with actors pretending to be families outside of an IGA? I mean, it really drives me nuts. Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, she's accused the Prime minister or being quote “missing in action” since the defeat, with no plan to address disadvantage. I'm pleased to say the Senator is on the line, what did you make of the video just set up?

SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
It's this Prime Minister's fantasy look back on the year. He failed at the beginning of last year to effectively address the issues of crime that are going on in the streets of Alice Springs. He came here he threw a bit of money at the problem, and he left and really nothing much has changed. There are still incidents of crime occurring on our streets. I had a friend who was rammed by a stolen vehicle. Nothing has changed. Obviously, the Prime Minister completely forgot there was a referendum that was held right throughout the year. I certainly haven't forgotten because I think it's been one of the busiest years of my entire life. But he clearly just like throughout the campaign, once again he is gaslighting Australia's to pretend that it didn't even occur in the first place.

STEVE PRICE
Isn't that interesting when you look at it this way? It shows that we went through months and months and months of divisive debate, dividing the nation around this question, it lost as we predicted it would, and nothing's changed. So, if it had gotten up, probably nothing would have changed either in the areas that you so brilliantly prosecuted during the campaign.

SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
The fact that the government spent $400 million on this, not to mention the donations that were made to the Yes campaign, do we know how they spent it? Where is the money now? What has it been - was it all expended on \ the entire campaign? Was it not? The call from the Australian people as a result of this is to actually hold inquiry into organizations that are funded to improve the lives of our most disadvantaged, and still this government is failing to heed those calls. But clearly the results, the 60-40 result, that the Australian people delivered, has indicated to the Prime Minister what he needs to do. He didn't have a backup plan. There was never a Plan B because they were determined, they were going to win this referendum and now they're scrambling for ways forward, for a plan of some sort. But they cannot put anything into action, they don’t have anything.

STEVE PRICE
Is one Indigenous kid in Alice Springs better off because of the Voice process?

SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
No, no, no. I mean, you know, the situation hasn't changed much at all. We've been calling for a royal commission into sexual abuse of Indigenous children. We know - the evidence is stark – that demonstrate our kids, the most marginalised kids in this country, also experience the highest rates of sexual abuse in this country. And yet this government continues to ignore the call for these to take place, over and over again, and know the situation hasn’t improved on the ground. What’s more, those kids that stole the vehicle that rent a good friend of mine with it, ending up in hospital with that incident, some of them as young as 12. Nothing's changed on the ground.

STEVE PRICE
Just finally, when you talk to parents of some of those children who are trying to do their best to bring them up, how let down do they feel by the fact that the man who's the Prime Minister of their country, could get in there for a couple of hours to do basically nothing and fly out again? And then the rest of the country, the media, and everybody just goes “oh well maybe it never happened, we will move on.”

SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Look, there are many in the communities that are beside themselves. There are elders in the community that have plans to support these vulnerable children. The Yipirinya School, the elders of that school that had a proposal sitting in front of the minister, Minister Burney, as well as the education Minister Clare, as well as obviously the Prime Minister and still they're not listening to community members. The Voice was about listening. I don't know how many times I've heard the Prime Minister say when you listen to Indigenous Australians and work with them. Well, there's groups of indigenous people right around the country that they have been flat out ignoring and are continuing to ignore because they didn't get the referendum up.

STEVE PRICE
He should be ashamed when he sees some of those pictures. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, have a great Christmas, thanks for joining us tonight on Sky.