Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has reacted to the news her motion calling on the Albanese government to hold a royal commission into Indigenous child sexual abuse has been voted down.
Ms Price had also called for an audit of the billions of dollars being spent on programs for Indigenous Australians and closing the gap after Labor’s Voice to Parliament was rejected by Australians during Saturday’s referendum.
She took to social media to share her frustration at the outcome in a video posted to Facebook on Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Price fought back tears in the short clip as she shared multiple examples of Indigenous children being abused.
Appearing on Sky News Australia hours later, the Senator explained why she put the motion forward.
“Today I tried to move an urgency motion to call upon the Prime Minister to hold a royal commission the sexual abuse of Indigenous children,” she told host Paul Murray.
“To audit Indigenous… the many services, and to work in a bipartisan manner to bring about common sense, practical approaches to solve some of these issues.
“That’s what happened today and I was just absolutely appalled at the excuses and the flippant way in which some of the Labor Senators behaved in response to this call.
The shadow Indigenous affairs minister became visibly emotional as she revealed she must now break the news to those who had asked her to put the motion forward on their behalf.
“I had informed those who had asked me to do this on their behalf, survivors of abuse, to push for this,” she said.
“I have to inform them now that their government is not interested in hearing their stories, understanding how they can improve the lives of those who are still in situations where they are being abused now and where we can prevent this in the future.
“That’s what I have to now go and tell them.”
Ms Price went on to describe the rejection of the motion as “unfathomable”.
(SKY NEWS)
