Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

And I can tell you something else, Senator Macdonald: the Liberal Party does not support this policy. For you to stand up and say that tonight shows, firstly, that you are operating on your own; and, secondly, that you are incapable of delivering the support of the Liberal Party for constitutional recognition. With regard to the issue of state support for constitutional recognition, it is a policy of the Labor Party to support constitutional recognition, and that extends to the Labor Party both state and federal.

Let us have a look at what Senator Macdonald said tonight. He said that the Liberals supported constitutional recognition of local government. Where is the public statement from the minister responsible for the portfolio and from the Prime Minister saying that the government will support a referendum on constitutional recognition once we have the issues of the question before us resolved? Labor has a plan for this. We have a policy, we have a time frame and we have offered to the local government sphere our support for them to work towards this outcome. Please use this opportunity to tell us what the coalition government’s policy is on this matter. You had the opportunity in 1974; the coalition opposed it. You had the opportunity to support it in 1988; the coalition opposed it. The question is: if we are in a position to put a referendum in the future, which will only happen if Labor is fortunate enough to be successful at the next election, will the coalition support that referendum? If the answer is yes then let us see the Prime Minister stand up and say that; otherwise, you are just misleading the people of local government and the sector that cares so deeply about this issue.

Senator Macdonald, I put it to you that it is not your party’s policy at all and that you have decided to come in here this evening and mouth off about your view and purport that the Liberal Party’s policy is to support constitutional recognition when in fact it is not your party’s policy at all—no more than it is the National Party’s formal policy. Unless you can point to formal statements from your leaders that contradict what I am saying, then I think that is the reality. You ought to stand up now and clarify what is going on.