Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese‘s “clueless” conference with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal and Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney.
On Saturday, the trio caught up in Sydney to discuss Labor’s Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. Weird, yes, but the PM said it was all O’Neal’s idea.
“He is interested in this country,” Albanese said.
“He knows that we are a warm and generous people, and he wanted to inform himself about what this debate was about by engaging directly with the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and myself as the Prime Minister.”
Senator Price said the meeting was an act of “shallowness with no substance”.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” she said on Facebook.
“If the PM and the Minister for Indigenous Australians thinks Shaq’s experience with ‘lifting people up who are marginalised’ is the answer to winning Yes votes for the Voice then it demonstrates just how clueless and out of touch they both are with what the needs of Aboriginal Australians are.
“I’ve no doubt Shaq’s a top bloke but it’s a bit insulting to call on a black American to help with black Australians as if this is all about the colour of one’s skin.”
Senator Price wasn’t the only person to criticise the move, with myriad Twitter users also voicing their concern and confusion.
This some next level settler nonsense. https://t.co/RhqzSCeqJc
— Dr JM Field (@JM_Field5) August 27, 2022
Um. What is the reason Shaq is here https://t.co/cTCGGMr1zn
— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) August 27, 2022
still can’t believe this is a real thing that actually happened today. what the fuck??? so bizarre, confusing and embarrassing. truly baffling why this happened, how they thought this would help https://t.co/4lf9nq98UW
— Shane Bazzi (@shanebazzi) August 27, 2022
The presser was objectively bizarre. Per SBS, O’Neal only made a brief appearance at the start and didn’t take any questions from reporters.
He did, however, greet Burney by pressing her hand against his forehead, which was intriguing to say the least. Did he try to kiss her hand and misjudge the aim horrendously, or was this a deliberate move? I simply must know.
NBA legend @SHAQ greets Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney in Sydney. He’s lending his support to the Voice to Parliament. “He wanted to inform himself about what this debate was about” PM Albanese says @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/2xnXdhU0A6
— Rashida Yosufzai (@Rashidajourno) August 27, 2022
O’Neal then said a few words for the cameras before yeeting.
“I’m here in your country, whatever you need from me, just let me know,” he said.
“We all know Shaq loves Australia.”
It’s giving DJ Khaled repeating his own name in his songs.
It also seems that O’Neal has moved on extremely quickly since the presser. He hasn’t posted any updates about the meeting — or the Indigenous Voice to Parliament — on his social media channels, instead choosing to share a video of him getting hit by Hasbulla on a boat on Saturday.
@Hasbulla_NFT almost knocked me out pic.twitter.com/EREtZJGCOR
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) August 27, 2022
And on Sunday, O’Neal also announced that he’s doing an NFT giveaway on Twitter. It’s nice knowing where his priorities lie.
