Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I first came into this parliament, I asked, 'Well, what's the purpose of the matters of public performance, MPIs?' It was put to me that question time is a chance for government to come in and tell the nation how great they are, and MPIs are a chance for the opposition and crossbench to say, 'Not so fast, not so fast.' This MPI is about competence, and it is about competence in a wide variety of areas. I would like to focus on the next four weeks, and I have a plea for the Prime Minister to show competence in one of the most important areas he is responsible for, which is keeping our nation together. I see here in the chamber my good friend the member for Robertson. I know that you have been on the receiving end of some awful things that have been said to you, and that should not happen. I know that recently Senator Jacinta Price received death threats, and that should never happen. People shared her personal private number. That may be funny to some because of the way that the campaign is being conducted, but we only need to look to what happened in other democracies, in the United States and in England, to know that this is really serious stuff.

People who've been here much longer than me have all said they have never seen passion so heightened on either side than they have on this issue. We do this for a living. It is a calling, a profession and a great honour, and we come in here and know there is some theatre to it. But when we go out of this building, people don't see that we politicians play sport together, we laugh together, we have dinner together. That is what we do, but that is not obvious to everyone in this debate because we are not practised in referendums. More than half of this nation have never had one before. And so when we stoke the fires on either side of the debate, there are consequences to that. Passionate, decent, good people of good character can disagree on this question, and they can still be passionate, good, decent people and come together. That includes people within families, within sporting groups, within businesses and within our electorates. You all would have received communications showing great passions from both sides, all of you.

There are things we can agree on—even if you have a view on 'yes' or 'no', there are a few things we can agree on. Decent, reasonable people can agree that we have great pride in our ancient Indigenous heritage, that we acknowledge gaps in poverty, education and health, and that we acknowledge historical and present-day injustices. But we must also all agree that in four weeks—today is 14 September, but on 14 October we must all agree—that the Australian people will get it right. On 14 October there will be wall-to-wall coverage on every channel and there will be panels trying to dissect what this referendum means for the leaders. But we must all agree that the Australian people got it right. We have seen examples of other nations where that doesn't occur, including our great friend the United States. We saw what happens when doesn't occur; it damages democracy.

It is not just on the night of 14 October that this is relevant, not just on that night. It is also relevant to how we conduct ourselves in the next four weeks. The Prime Minister is a passionate advocate for 'yes'—that is clear, and I understand that. But there are ways you can delegitimise the vote. Too many have used the words 'misinformation' and 'disinformation' like it is a cute line. It is another way of saying fake news or propaganda, another way of saying, 'I'm not listening,' another way of saying, 'Talk to the hand.' But the effect of that is to delegitimise the vote. You are doing it in advance, and we can't do that. We can't fix that on election night. If you have set the conditions up for Australian people to vote 'no'—and we will see what they do—and if you have said that that is the bar on misinformation or disinformation, you have undermined our democracy. I caution against that in the next four weeks.

When the Prime Minister passionately says a hand has been outreached, what will he say if the majority of Australians vote 'no'? Have they hit that hand away? That is a terrible thing to say about the majority of Australian people, a terrible thing. We should never say things like that. It's a serious constitutional amendment, a new chapter with real powers. It wasn't a modest proposal; it has real powers. That's the question. It's not about manners. It should never be put in that way. So, in the next four weeks, I plead with the Prime Minister to set the conditions for us all to agree on referendum night that the Australian people got it right, whatever that view is. We can and should all agree on that.

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