AARON PATRICK: Liberal senator Michaelia Cash’s speech has fans calling for her to become leader

In 2020, Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave a speech on misogyny, still celebrated by many Australians for its coldly delivered anger, clarity and eloquence.

On Thursday afternoon, at the culmination of 24 minutes of unusually profound debate about the recognition of Indigenous Australians, the Federal Parliament’s leading conservative female representative gave a speech of similar power.

Michaelia Cash had not intended to speak. She was roused by what she saw as the denigration of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who supported Pauline Hanson’s opposition to an acknowledgement of country reading at the opening of the 48th parliament.

In Ms Gillard’s case, the target was Liberal leader Tony Abbott. Senator Cash went after the Labor Party’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, one of Parliament’s most formidable debaters.

Unsurprisingly, Senator Wong was scathing of the One Nation Leader. She had also devised a way to annoy her opponents. She praised Liberal leader Sussan Ley for embracing Indigenous acknowledgements and urged Coalition senators — many sceptical of the sentiment — to pay attention.

“I would hope that the Opposition would reflect on the words of their own leader in relation to welcomes to country,” Senator Wong said.

Facing away

In private, Senator Cash had earlier told the One Nation Leader she and her three colleagues were wrong to turn their backs during Tuesday’s reading. A believer in parliamentary decorum, she felt the act was disrespectful to President Sue Lines and the Senate itself.

Senator Cash kept her criticism private. But when Senator Wong lectured her and the other Coalition MPs about decency and respect, which, the Labor MP said, “cost us nothing, but they go a long way to building a sense of unity,” Senator Cash could not hide her anger against what she saw as a deliberate slur against a female, Indigenous colleague.

“When I first came to this place, it was prayers; it was not a welcome to country. But I can tell you: do not ever demean anybody,” Senator Cash said.

“Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price — her mother’s story; Bess Price. I suggest you all read it. A woman walking through the desert was her mother, who had her baby between her legs under a tree.

“She picked up her baby, she cut the umbilical cord and she kept walking. I suggest you read the story of Bess Price before you ever come in here and cast aspersions or tell us, Senator Wong, to respect other words.

“I will stand by and respect Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who every day has lived and breathed reconciliation in this country. Her father is white; her mother is black. So please don’t ever come into this place again and pontificate to us like you’ve just done.”

Bess Price

Senator Cash is not a reserved speaker. Her voice raised several octaves, and came close to breaking, as she described a 13-year-old mother walking through the outback with a newborn baby. Cut short on time, she did not mention that lovely child, Senator Price’s older brother Leonard, would not survive to become a teenager.

Now 64, Bess Price became an accomplished Australian. Elected to the Northern Territory legislature in 2012, she was a minister for three years. Like her daughter, she represented the Country Liberal Party, living proof that Indigenous Australians’ political beliefs are as diverse as everyone else’s.

On Thursday, the opposing side of the debate was led by another Territorian, Malarndirri McCarthy. The Labor Minister for Indigenous Australians was understandably unhappy with the One Nation protest. Rather than engage in personal criticism, though, she encouraged understanding through civil conversation.

“Respect and acknowledgement go both ways,” she said. “I urge all senators to remember who you work beside and who you walk with. Even when we disagree, we have a chamber here where we can discuss things in a manner that is far more respectful than we’ve seen in these previous days.”

Respect back

Even though she has a reputation as a firebrand, Senator Hanson explained her opposition to the Welcome to Country ceremony in clear and unemotional terms. Representing many working-class voters, she argued for what she regards as racial equality in the parliament and elsewhere.

“Senator McCarthy and the other members of the First Nations caucus, as you call yourselves, I do understand and respect that you are asking for respect as Australians,” she said.

“All One Nation, and the rest of the Australian people, wants is the same respect back — that is, that we are still part of this nation, that we are people who are born here and people who have migrated here. We also want acknowledgement and respect of this nation.”

Senator Price has long argued that welcome to country and acknowledgement of country ceremonies are modern creations that do little for the people they represent. She doesn’t often talk about her upbringing and did not share any personal experiences when she supported Senator Hanson in the Senate debate.

“We need to stop the infantilisation of who we are as a group of people, as though we’re somehow different,” she said. “We are not different. We are the same. We are Australian.

“‘First Nations’ isn’t even Australian terminology, for crying out loud! It’s been adopted from Canada, from America. It’s just reinvention, which is actually belittling and watering down traditional culture and what it’s really about.”

Every day

The Senate introduced a daily acknowledgement of country under a Labor Government in 2010, contributing to their widespread adoption at the start of public and semi-public meetings across Australia.

In Parliament, two prayers are also recited: a parliamentary prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, a Christian tradition dating to the formation of Australia in 1901.

While some Labor MPs, including Senator Lines, have expressed a desire to cancel the prayers, both main parties regard the Indigenous and Christian acknowledgements as a comfortable compromise that would cause too much angst to change.

That does not mean that the argument will not continue, as Thursday’s debate showed.

Senator Cash’s speech, which included praise for senators Malarndirri and Hanson for their “heartfelt” opinions, did not make the evening news. But it thrilled many conservatives who watched online.

At a time when many are demoralised by their failures at home and turmoil overseas, they found the senator’s passionate display of loyalty and reminder of Indigenous hardship inspiring.

“I think we just saw the new leader of the liberal party,” David Baker wrote on X.

“Long live the hairspray,” wrote Kim Rouxel.