Former chief justice Robert French has rejected key claims made by the campaign opposing the Voice to parliament and warned about an increasing polarisation.
Former High Court chief justice Robert French has urged Australians to value the practical gains from the Indigenous Voice against the risk of any legal dispute over how the new body would work, taking on a key warning from No campaigners about years of uncertainty about its power.
But the No campaign has gained ground this year by telling Australians the Voice will divide the country by race, with Fair Australia leader Warren Mundine also pointing to different opinions among judges to warn about the risk of legal uncertainty. “Stretching my imagination only a little, I would foresee a decade or more of constitutional and administrative law litigation arising out of a voice whether constitutionally entrenched or not,” he wrote.Asked about this, French said: “I wouldn’t think that that gloomy prognosis is a probable one.”
“As a former judge, I would never promise absolute certainty. If you have a lawyer who says to you, ‘we are certain to win,’ you must change your lawyer because there are often reasonable arguments on both sides. Asked about his use of the word “weaponisation” to describe some of the argument against the Voice, he said many of the debates about the proposed body were about personal attacks rather than the substance of the change.
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