Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our Publishing Guidelines.
Dear Editor,
In The Australian, Chris Kenny has provided sober, rational pieces on the Voice. However, his assessment of Senator Price has been way off the mark.
Much of what I have included in this letter here comes from an article by Jon Faine in The Guardian. He was spot on.
Any discussion about politics in the Northern Territory quickly turns to the dismay that so many locals hold of Senator Price claiming to represent people in remote Indigenous communities. There is unambiguous evidence that most do not vote for her.
In 2019, Price contested the House of Representatives for the Country Liberal Party (CLP). In the Aboriginal communities of Yuendumu (her mother's Warlpiri community) and Kintore, as one example, where about 500 people voted, she polled just 36 votes. The vote in other remote communities showed similar trends. She lost the election.
Some white urban voters supported her candidacy, while First Nations voters in remote communities mostly rejected her.
In 2022, it was the same pattern. Although, as the first candidate on the CLP Senate ticket, Price did get elected, but on a declining share of the vote. Comparing the 2022 CLP Senate vote with 2019 shows that, while the national swing against the Morrison government was nearly 6 per cent, the CLP vote in the Northern Territory was down 2...
