There was a time when conservatives could have supported the Voice, by backing a proposal brought by Indigenous Australians at the request of then prime minister Tony Abbott. 

Instead, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, after months of equivocation, decided to reject the Voice with all the gusto we’ve come to expect from the man who walked out on the national apology.

So how did it come to this? What damage is anti-Voice rhetoric doing to public debate? And do conservatives really want to do anything to close the gap?

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Guest: Federal MP for New England, Barnaby Joyce; Federal MP for Berowra, Julian Leeser

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