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14 Oct 2023 9:24pmMarcia Langton: 'This question was not about race'
Prominent Yes campaigner Marcia Langton has strongly denied claims she called Australians racist, saying the Voice question "was not about race".
Langton, a Yiman and Bidjara woman, and prominent No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine engaged in a heated debate on NITV's The Point program, in which Mundine accused Langton of being "the one who has caused division in this country".
"I'm not going to take any comments from a person who thinks that we are a racist country, and that we are racist people," he said.
Langton has been accused in media reporting of branding No voters as "racist" or "stupid" - claims she has vehemently denied and has said have been taken out of context.
Speaking on The Point, Langton accused Mundine of "very Trumpian play": "Create racial division, by lying, and then accuse me of being a provocateur".
"It's factual," Mundine interrupted. "It's not a lie."
"You are the one who has caused division in this country. We are about uniting this country and moving forward and fixing the problems we have in Aboriginal communities."
Host Narelda Jacobs then interjected: "We're not going to sit here and take you abusing a national treasure like Marcia Langton, who never said that Australians were racist, and her words were twisted."
"I didn't say that Australians are racist," Langton said. "What I said was that the messaging of the No campaign is based in some racialist assumptions.
"I was asking people to think deeply about the racist underpinnings of the No campaign messaging.
"It's not true that I think Australians are racist. I want to say a big thank you to the 50,000 volunteers who worked hard on the campaign with us to try to achieve a Yes vote for a very simple proposition that would recognise us as the Indigenous peoples of Australia, our ancestors having come 60,000 years ago. It's not about race at all, and that was my message."
One of the most talked-about claims is that the Voice to Parliament would divide Australia by race, or give special rights to one race of people. SBS News .
"This question was not about race. The No campaign have turned it into a racially divisive proposition when it is not at all," Langton said.
Mundine responded: "You cannot say that putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in a constitution, which all my life and all my parents' life and all my grandparents' life - is that we were Aboriginal, is a race, Torres Strait Islanders are a race. And then to pretend that by putting those things in the constitution is not about putting a race in the constitution."
Langton, a Yiman and Bidjara woman, and prominent No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine engaged in a heated debate on NITV's The Point program, in which Mundine accused Langton of being "the one who has caused division in this country".
"I'm not going to take any comments from a person who thinks that we are a racist country, and that we are racist people," he said.
Langton has been accused in media reporting of branding No voters as "racist" or "stupid" - claims she has vehemently denied and has said have been taken out of context.
Speaking on The Point, Langton accused Mundine of "very Trumpian play": "Create racial division, by lying, and then accuse me of being a provocateur".
"It's factual," Mundine interrupted. "It's not a lie."
"You are the one who has caused division in this country. We are about uniting this country and moving forward and fixing the problems we have in Aboriginal communities."
Host Narelda Jacobs then interjected: "We're not going to sit here and take you abusing a national treasure like Marcia Langton, who never said that Australians were racist, and her words were twisted."
"I didn't say that Australians are racist," Langton said. "What I said was that the messaging of the No campaign is based in some racialist assumptions.
"I was asking people to think deeply about the racist underpinnings of the No campaign messaging.
"It's not true that I think Australians are racist. I want to say a big thank you to the 50,000 volunteers who worked hard on the campaign with us to try to achieve a Yes vote for a very simple proposition that would recognise us as the Indigenous peoples of Australia, our ancestors having come 60,000 years ago. It's not about race at all, and that was my message."
One of the most talked-about claims is that the Voice to Parliament would divide Australia by race, or give special rights to one race of people. SBS News .
"This question was not about race. The No campaign have turned it into a racially divisive proposition when it is not at all," Langton said.
Mundine responded: "You cannot say that putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in a constitution, which all my life and all my parents' life and all my grandparents' life - is that we were Aboriginal, is a race, Torres Strait Islanders are a race. And then to pretend that by putting those things in the constitution is not about putting a race in the constitution."
