2023-04-06
Peter Dutton’s opposition to the Voice has all but killed the Liberal Party’s chances in inner-city seats in South Australia at the next election. The SA Liberals voted no on the South Australian Voice and now the federal party is set to follow suit.
At the last Federal Election, the Liberals lost Boothby, saw a swing against them in Adelaide and in the once safe Liberal seat of Sturt, MP James Stevens held on by just over a thousand votes, after a huge swing to the Greens. At the state level, seats like Dunstan and Heysen are also sitting on very tight margins.
The SA Greens will be strongly campaigning to support the Yes campaign for a Voice to Parliament and will be focussing resources to talk to voters in Liberal-held seats.
Greens Senator for SA Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party learned nothing from the Aston by-election. Rather than realising they’re completely out of touch with Australians, they’ve gone even further to the right.
“The nasty party unity ticket with Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton is out of touch with everyday, modern Australia.
“South Australians voters care about giving First Nations people a voice and being on the right side of history. Yesterday’s Newspoll showed the strongest support for the Yes case was in South Australia where 60 per cent of voters said they’re in favor of the Voice proposal.
“In areas where the local Liberal MP won’t rally the community to support the Voice to Parliament, the Greens will run a strong campaign. We will start by writing to the voters of Sturt to let them know how they can get involved.”