Two high-profile Liberal Party figures have appeared in a new advertisement attacking any proposal for an Indigenous voice to parliament.
Queensland Senator James McGrath and former political candidate Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claim a voice will divide Australians by race.
The negative campaign was launched by the Institute of Public Affairs one day after Ken Wyatt, the minister for Aboriginal affairs, announced a co-design process on the voice to parliament.
Ms Price, who ran for the Liberal Party in the NT seat of Lingiari, said in the video that a voice would be "creating a separate entity".
"We are not a separate entity," she said.
"We should be considered Australian citizens and part of the fabric of this nation."
The Alice Springs town councillor described the proposal as a “fad” which detracted attention away from other issues.
"The idea of having a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament is telling us that there are those who believe that we are forever going to disadvantaged," she said.
The idea - put forward in 2017 by the Uluru Statement from the Heart - has been rejected by the coalition government.
Mr McGrath claimed that a voice to parliament “will damage equality" and “divide Australia on the basis of race".
“I don’t want Indigenous Queenslanders being separated from non-Indigenous Queenslanders on the basis of their race and who they can vote for and where they can vote on the basis of a special chamber or a special voice,” he said.
“We’re all equal, we’re all the same. This is just nuts.”
