Australia’s new rightwing prime minister’s choice of a previous prime minister, Tony Abbott, as “special envoy” to Indigenous people has triggered their angry reactions.1
“We do not need a special envoy, we need our leaders to listen,” wrote Luke Pearson, founder and director of the news service IndigenousX.
An Opposition Labor member of parliament, LindaBurney commented, "He [Abbott] opposes a voice to Parliament. He doesn’t believe in empowering First Nations people.”
Labor Senator Patrick Dodson, also an Aborigine, noted that as prime minister Abbott “cut $500 million from Indigenous programs in the 2014 federal budget."