‘Embarrassment for Labor’: South Australia’s push for state-based Voice ‘backfires’

Now, embarrassment for Labor as the South Australian government's decision to push ahead with a state-based voice. We all voted against the voice, but no, Labor, what's his name, thinks he knows better. It backfired. Just over 9% of Indigenous Australians in South Australia turned out to vote following a resounding no vote in the federal referendum. Joining us now to discuss this is South Australian Liberal Member of the Legislative Council, Ben Hood. Ben, great to see you again. What is going on in South Australia? Please explain. We voted against the voice, but you then do a voice and nobody bothers to turn up. You know, it's what if they, the old saying used to be, what if they put up honour war and nobody came? Well, what if they actually legislated a voice and nobody bothered to turn up? What's going on, Ben? Well, you're spot on, Rowan, and happy Easter Sunday to the viewers. Look, what has happened is probably what we expect, that 64% of South Australians voted no to the federal referendum, and now 90% of Aboriginal South Australians have, for all intents and purposes, turned their back on this voice. It's a vote of no confidence. There was 2,500, approximately 2,500 votes cast throughout the state, and some electors, some nominators were elected with less than six votes, and there are cases that some of them had zero votes. So it begs the question, did they even come out and vote for themselves? It's an absolute travesty. It's a complete failure on every measure, and Peter Malinowski needs to undo this straight away. No doubt about it. Rita? Wow. Yeah, it was reported there were reps elected with six votes, which is mind-blowing, but we've also seen this in Victoria. Now, Victoria had less than 10% turnout as well, 7%, and just under 10% for the last First People's Assembly, they call it, in Victoria, but there seems to be no appetite to do a U-turn here. What will the Liberals, the Coalition do if they are elected? Do you have a firm policy to roll this back, or are we waiting and seeing what happens? Look, it's a great question, Rita, and I've personally been against the federal vote and, of course, the state vote as well, and as long as I'm in the party room of the state Liberals, I'll be advocating for a repeal policy to be brought to 2026, but at the end of the day, we have a repeal bill being brought before the Legislative Council by the Honourable Sarah Gahm. I congratulate her on that, but it hasn't been brought to a vote because we don't have the numbers, quite simply. So it is up to Peter Malinowski, it's to pull the leaders of government to undo what has essentially been a failed ideological experiment on behalf of Labor and put a line through this voice. Only yesterday, the Premier and Attorney-General Clive Maher equated this vote, this successful vote in their terms, to ATSI, and we know exactly how ATSI turned out. It was abolished because of corruption and nepotism, and I'm really worried, as are a majority of South Australians, I think, that that's exactly where this state voice is going to go as well. James, well, Ben, tell me about, you've got a petition, don'tdivideSA.com.au, tell me how that's going, what that's calling for, and is it true that you've had more signatories to that petition than people actually cast their vote in this election? Well, James, that's exactly right. Don't Divide SA's petition that I spun up last November, to date we've had over 7,000 votes, or signs, a signatory on that petition. So that's about, well, I'm not very good at maths, but that's 171% more than the people that actually voted in this state voice. And I think that that outlines the issue here, that the Labor government in South Australia are ignoring the pleas of everyday South Australians, they're not focused on cost of living, they're not focused on dealing with the energy crisis, they're not focused on small business and backing the family, but chasing down every ideological rabbit hole with their pet pauses and unfortunately they're the ones that have to undo this. And Ben, sorry, just one more question for you. How much will this voice cost to operate, run, implement, and what actual authority does it have, if any, to influence legislation, or is this just simply an expensive advisory body that has no power, or that it will have power and have real teeth despite having representatives voted onto it with tiny, tiny, less than a handful of votes? Look, it's a great question, James. At the end of the day, Labor would have you believe both, that it's this powerful voice for Aboriginal Australians, or it's actually not anything really that terrible. What it is, is the voice can come onto the floor of Parliament and speak to any bill. The clerks of both houses have to advise the voice of any legislation, any bill that comes before Parliament. Now, they can't hold it up, but as we know with the federal voice, and this was the argument, that when the voice will go against the bill from any government, essentially any government that will go against the voice will probably be deemed inherently racist, and they will play it out in the media. It is going to be a handbrake on our democracy, and at the end of the day, we should not delineate our democracy on race. It is as simple as that. But Ben, it's not, it's not, I'm sorry, it's not a handbrake on your democracy, it's the death of your democracy. You do not have democracy in South Australia. If some person with six votes or 11 votes or whatever it is, can go onto the floor of Parliament and their opinion can sway legislation that the democratically elected, and overrule if you like, or influence the democratically elected body, it is the death of democracy. There is absolutely no place in a democracy for this sort of cronyism, and it must be repealed. And Peter Malinowskis, what you have done is shown that Labor's entire Indigenous First Nations Voice program is a complete farce, it's a complete joke. You do not represent the Indigenous people of this country. They voted against you, Labor. Learn the lesson. Ben Hood, thanks so much for coming on. Outsiders, have a great Easter, and please, get rid of this ridiculous thing out of the South Australian Parliament as soon as you get into power.