Former prime minister John Howard said national sporting bodies should 'stay out' of the Voice to Parliament referendum, arguing that taking positions on contested political issues like the Voice undermines the capacity of sport to bring people together.
Former prime minister John Howard has lamented the trend of national sporting bodies taking public positions on contentious political issues like the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.Last week the NRL joined Tennis Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee in supporting the Yes campaign in the Voice to Parliament referendum, and the AFL is widely expected to follow suit.
“The idea that a sporting body, an organ, a roof organisation, a national body, a state body can speak with authority on behalf of the whole football code is ridiculous,” Mr Howard told Sky News Australia’s Paul Murray. “When I was Prime Minister, I used to say sport was a great natural cement in the way in which it crossed the divide,” Mr Howard said, before giving an example of watching St George Illawarra with two former Labor ministers.
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