Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I am very disappointed in the matter of public importance moved by the Leader of the Opposition today. For more than a year the Leader of the Opposition has been looking for excuses to oppose the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. He's not been looking for answers to genuine questions. He's been asking questions which he knows have already been clearly and fully answered. The Leader of the Opposition has not engaged in this process in good faith. We know this because of the Leader of the Opposition announced his opposition to the Voice before the parliamentary inquiry into the proposed constitutional amendment had even been commenced. We know this. We know that the Leader of the Opposition has not engaged in good faith, because this Leader of the Opposition has repeatedly called for the government to release the Solicitor-General's opinion on the proposed amendment and then, when we released the Solicitor-General's opinion, he ignored it because it did not suit his narrative. We know this because multiple members of the Liberal Party have stood up in this place and deliberately misrepresented the views of former High Court judges, and the Leader of the Opposition backed them in. We know this because this Leader of the Opposition has persistently spread misinformation and disinformation about this referendum proposal. The Leader of the Opposition wants to make this a debate about politics. He wants to create division and negativity just like he did when he walked out of the apology on 13 February 2008, except now we have a leader of the opposition who wants to use this referendum to shore up his leadership of the Liberal Party.

This referendum is not about the Leader of the Opposition's leadership of the Liberal Party. It's not about party politics at all. This referendum is about two things. It's about recognising and it's about listening: recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia, with over 60,000 years of history and continuous connection to this land, and listening to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples when it comes to laws and policies that affect them. When you listen to communities, you get better outcomes, making a practical difference on the ground in areas like jobs, health, education, housing and justice. That's what the voice will deliver.

The Leader of the Opposition has tasked the shadow Attorney-General in the other place with inventing ever-more-hyperbolic claims about the Voice, but nothing that the shadow Attorney-General has said about the proposed amendment to the Constitution can change the fact that this proposal has been extensively scrutinised by some of the best legal minds in the country. That includes the Constitutional Expert Group and the Solicitor-General. They have concluded that the bill is legally sound. As I noted, the government has released the opinion of the Solicitor-General on the proposed amendment. I know that the opposition does not like the opinion. They don't like the opinion, because it doesn't suit their narrative. They don't like it, because it effectively draws a line under the wrong and baseless arguments from the Leader of the Opposition and other senior members of the Liberal Party.

Contrary to the nonsense that's been spouted over the last couple of weeks by the shadow Attorney-General and by this Leader of the Opposition, including today, the Solicitor-General says:

The proposed amendment is not only compatible with the system of representative and responsible government established under the Constitution, but it enhances that system.

The Solicitor-General has also said the proposed constitutional amendment 'would not alter the existing distribution of Commonwealth governmental power'. He said the proposed constitutional amendment 'imposes no obligations of any kind upon the Voice, the parliament or the executive government'. The Solicitor-General said the Voice will operate alongside the existing structures of Australian's democratic system. The Solicitor-General's opinion is consistent with the views of the overwhelming consensus of constitutional experts, which is that the proposed constitutional amendment is constitutionally sound. Australians can have confidence that constitutional recognition through a voice will work. This referendum is the best chance we've had to address the injustices of the past and create change that will deliver a better future. The Voice can do no harm, only good for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and our country more broadly. (Time expired)

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