MEMBERS of the Victorian Liberal and National parties will be free to vote however they like at the Voice to Parliament referendum later this year.
At odds with their federal counterparts, the state Nationals agreed to a non-binding position during a party room meeting on Tuesday.
Member for Mildura Jade Benham said they had robust discussions on this topic.
“At the end of the day we decided that being a federal issue, there’s no binding position for any party member to take,” Ms Benham said.
“We’re all adults and we’re free to have our own positions on this issue.”
In November last year, the federal National party announced that its party members would oppose a Voice to Parliament.
Ms Benham said the Victorian Nationals are “very different” from their Federal counterparts.
“They did come out with their position on it very, very early and there’s been some changes to shadow cabinet because of it,” she said.
“We’re separate, we’re state, we have our own party room meetings, our own leadership, and we’ll form our own views.”
She said a lot of people see the referendum as a divisive issue, including in Mildura and Robinvale’s Indigenous community.
“There are strong opinions one way or the other, but there are also those that don’t have strong opinions and don’t actually know how they’ll vote when it comes time for it,” she said.
“I think some are also not voicing their opinion one way or the other for fear of retribution and that’s not a good thing, not a good thing for any community.”
Ms Benham said she had not reached a final verdict on how she’ll vote, and is awaiting more detail.
“It’s still a long way away,” she said.
“I’ll do a lot more consultation and chatting with members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in due course.
“I can’t really say one way or the other at this point.”
