The Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party president has quit both his role and the party over its opposition to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Lawson Broad told the ABC he was "strongly opposed" to the recent announcement from the CLP that its rank-and-file members had voted to back the 'No' campaign in the upcoming referendum.
The announcement comes ahead of this weekend's by-election in the NT seat of Arafura.
Mr Broad said the party's position on the Voice, as well as other "formal policy positions", was reached while he was on leave.
"My personal view is that these positions are offensive to a large number of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and the population more generally," Mr Broad said.
"They seek to undermine decades of successive and evolving efforts on both sides of politics to empower Aboriginal people and communities through recognition of language, culture, and law.
"By their nature, they have the potential to further entrench Aboriginal disadvantage and they create opportunity to be interpreted as racist."
Mr Broad said as a result, his position as president was "no longer tenable".
CLP parliamentary wing yet to reach a formal position
While the rank-and-file members of the CLP and its federal representative Jacinta Price have declared their opposition to the Voice, the party's NT parliamentary wing is yet to announce its position.
Speaking on ABC Radio, CLP leader Lia Finocchiaro said she respected Mr Broad's decision but that she was focused on this weekend's by-election.
"Under [the party's] constitution, a vice-president will step up, we'll elect a new president … it's bigger than one person," she said.
"We do have a really important job to do and we will continue to do that."
Ms Finocchiaro said she's not ready to announce a position for the parliamentary wing of the party due to a lack of detail "on the ground", but said she doesn't think it is racist to vote 'No'.
Labor Chief Minister Natasha Fyles seized on Mr Lawson's resignation, describing Ms Finocchiaro's position as CLP leader "untenable".
"Her lack of leadership on this issue is extremely concerning and the CLP need to look at her position," she said.
"You can't sit on the fence on these issues. It is an important issue to Territorians, but it's a particularly important issue to Indigenous Territorians."
Ms Fyles' government has backed the 'Yes' vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, due later this year.
In a statement issued on Monday afternoon, CLP secretary Tony Schelling said the party thanked Mr Broad for his contribution while party president.
"In accordance with our constitution, Sean Heenan will remain acting president as he has for the last four months while Lawson was away on personal leave," she said.
