Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has slammed the Andrews Government’s decision to “indoctrinate” Victorian classrooms with a Voice to Parliament agenda.
Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has slammed the Andrews Government’s decision to “indoctrinate” Victorian classrooms with a Voice to Parliament agenda.
The Victorian education department have introduced a policy which promotes the Indigenous Voice to Parliament as part of the “journey to Treaty” in classrooms across the state.
The Victorian Government is currently in the process of negotiating a Treaty framework with Indigenous Victorians.
Mr Mundine told Sky News Australia he was unsurprised the “People’s Democratic Republic of Victoria” was instituting a pro-Voice syllabus.
“This is just indoctrination,” he said.
“If you’re going to talk about the Voice, you’ve got to have two viewpoints … You’ve got to have the ‘Yes’ viewpoint and the ‘No’ viewpoint.
“If you’re not doing that, then it is about indoctrination.”
Details of what would be contained within the curriculum remain unclear, however a spokesperson for the Victorian Education Department said “conversations” about the proposed Voice to Parliament would be had in the state’s classroom.
Education Minister Natalie Hutchins also said that “classroom conversations” would form a pivotal part of Victorian students’ education.
“The Voice referendum will be a defining moment in our nation’s history and classroom conversations around major current affairs are a normal and important part of students understanding and education,” she said in a statement.
Premier Daniel Andrews denied there would be a campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the Voice referendum as part of the curriculum.
“I don’t know that there’ll be a campaign in schools. I think that there might be some discussion about it,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Mundine indicated he was willing to write to the federal Education Minister about the issue but said he didn’t expect it to yield results.
“The Federal Government is all part and package of this whole deal,” he said.
“They’re treating the Australian public like mugs. Teaching kids, when some of their parents will actually vote no is turning kids against their parents.”
“It’s almost like you’re back in the Stasi in East Germany.”
Source: Sky News