Waleed Aly and Steve Price clash over damning Voice letter
Waleed Aly and Steve Price have clashed over an anonymous letter from Yes campaigners, condemning those who opposed the Voice to Parliament.
On Sunday night, a lengthy and unsigned letter was shared by activists associated with the Uluru Dialogue group, as the letter slammed No voters for committing "a shameful act" by contributing to the Voice defeat.
On The Project, Price was quick to slam the author of the letter, who addressed the message to the Prime Minister and all federal members of parliament, saying they did not have "the guts" to sign it.
"It seems to me the Yes campaign hasn't learned anything about the result that happened Saturday two weeks ago," he said on Monday night.
"The public voted 60 (per cent) No, 40 (per cent) Yes and yet, they pen a letter that they then send to the Cabinet and Prime Minister calling people who voted No as doing a shameful act, suggesting No voters are racists."
"If you are going to do that, at least have the courage to put your name to it."
Aly then leapt to the defence of those who wrote the anonymous letter, saying, "I don't think they said all No voters were racist."
"They said racism was a big part of the campaign and the vote, they are inextricably bound up."
Aly admitted that while he did not agree with everything in the letter, it was "hard to have a simple response to it".
"They must be so hurting. I can't deny them that. Whether we agree or not," he said.
The open letter claims to be "the collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations who supported Yes".
The published letter said, "The truth is that the majority of Australians have committed a shameful act whether knowingly or not, and there is nothing positive to be interpreted from it. We needed truth to be told to the Australian people."
Image credits: The Project