At least three leading Liberal moderates – Simon Birmingham, Paul Fletcher and Marise Payne – spoke out in a shadow cabinet meeting against the party’s plan to oppose the Indigenous voice to parliament.
Guardian Australia understands the meeting considered an alternative stance put forward by the shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, to allow all members a free say on the voice at least until a parliamentary committee could consider calls to amend the constitutional alteration bill.
Birmingham, the shadow foreign affairs minister, Fletcher, the manager of opposition business and Payne, the cabinet secretary, favoured the alternative option but are now bound to the collective cabinet position. Only backbenchers will be free to campaign in favour of the voice.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, favoured opposition to constitutional recognition and this was carried in a meeting attended only by Liberals and not Nationals, who in November resolved to oppose the voice.
The issue was then discussed in a Liberal party room meeting, at which Bridget Archer, Andrew Bragg, Russell Broadbent and reportedly Richard Colbeck spoke against opposing the voice.
Fletcher on Thursday said the party had “taken a decision, a shadow cabinet decision, and that’s the position that we’ve arrived at”.
“Of course, members of the Liberal party, other than those who have particular frontbench responsibilities, are always free to exercise a conscience vote,” he told the ABC’s Radio National.
“Can I make the point, though, that we’ve said we will support the bill to authorise the referendum to proceed.”
On ABC TV, Fletcher said he “will be making the case for Liberal party policy on this issue” but side-stepped a question about his personal vote.
Asked if he would be prepared to show-and-tell his own vote in the referendum, Fletcher replied: “That’ll be a matter for individuals.
“I’m a member of shadow cabinet. I support the Liberal party’s position that was arrived at yesterday.”
Birmingham on Thursday told ABC Radio Adelaide that he will vote for the constitutional alteration bill. “That enables Australians to have their say at a referendum and I’ll let them then get on and have their say.”
Asked if he relished the prospect of campaigning against the voice, Birmingham replied: “The approach I’ll take will be one of respecting the Australian people as they go about making their decision.
“I’m going to keep fighting the good fight as I try to in shadow cabinet and through the parliament for Liberal values as I see them and how I think we should take them forward in effective, positive policies at the next election.”
Before the Wednesday party room meeting, Birmingham penned an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age arguing that the Liberals must become “the party of inclusion”.
“Perceptions of intolerance created by some hasn’t just cost the votes of those who feel judged, it has hurt the Liberal party with all who reject nastiness or divisiveness,” he wrote.
The Liberal party’s stance on the voice has been condemned by Indigenous leaders such as Noel Pearson, who called it a “Judas betrayal”, and Ken Wyatt, the former minister for Indigenous Australians, who quit the Liberal party in protest.
Dutton announced the party’s position on Wednesday alongside deputy leader Sussan Ley, and explained Leeser’s absence by saying he “had to head back to Sydney for Passover”.
Dutton said the Liberal position was a “yes to constitutional recognition” (of a purely symbolic variety, rejected by the Uluru statement from the heart) and a “yes to local and regional voices” in legislation, but a “no to the prime minister’s Canberra voice”.
In a social media post on Thursday, Dutton said “we support a better way of improving the lives of Indigenous Australians through local and regional advisory bodies”.
“We don’t support Mr Albanese’s Canberra Voice bureaucracy that will divide Australians.”
Guardian Australia contacted Birmingham, Fletcher and Payne for comment.
