Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise tonight to speak on the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022, because it is a very significant day in our history when we seek to ask the Australian public to make a decision about changing the founding document of our country—that is, our Constitution.

I know, when it comes to constitutional matters, that those on this side of the chamber take the issue very seriously. We need to make sure that the approach we take when we seek to change our Constitution is principled, underpinned by sound reasoning, consistent and fair. I am particularly concerned, as I stand this evening to talk about this bill, that we are being asked to change the machinery that sits behind the establishment of a referendum in a way that has never been done before in this country and that, in my opinion, seeks to make the putting of this really important question to Australia an unbalanced activity.

The principles that underpin our democracy are the very reason we stand in this chamber. The principles that underpin democracy are the very reason that our parliament, the Westminster system, is the most important in the world. I believe, as I know many of my colleagues on this side of the chamber believe, that the sovereign will of the Australian people is something that we must treat with the greatest respect. Changing the document by which our country lives is one of the most serious things that we will ever be asked to do in this place. It's not something that we should be taking lightly and it's not something that we should be using for our own political purposes. So, in standing here today, I raise a concern that I'm sure just about all of my colleagues on this side, when they've contributed to this debate, have raised—that is, the responsibility of the government to make sure that they take the lead and provide clear, consistent, unbiased information to the Australian public so that the strength of our referendum process is not compromised by political interference.

There are three main issues that we came to the table with and that we told the government were extremely important for the maintenance of the integrity of the referendum process. The first one was providing to the Australian public a pamphlet that outlined the arguments that sat behind the case for a 'yes' and the case for a 'no', and, in doing so—understanding the broad scope of Australia, the many multicultural communities that exist—making sure that the pamphlet was provided in writing to every household in Australia in appropriate format for that household so that the people who lived there could understand what the two arguments in relation to the proposed change in the Constitution actually meant. We were obviously delighted when the government agreed that it would restore the pamphlet. The original bill that went through the other place actually sought to have that pamphlet removed. It sought to deny the Australian population the opportunity to be provided with, in an independent and unbiased way, an assessment of both of the campaigns and why they were proposing either the 'yes' case or the 'no' case. Whilst the government are bringing to this chamber, I believe, amendments to the bill that will enable a 'yes' and 'no' pamphlet, obviously we're very keen to see where the government finally land in relation to that pamphlet, because it underpins a hugely important component of the integrity of the referendum—that is, providing Australians with fair, unfettered, unbiased information about what the government are asking them to do. The idea that the government would seek to change our founding document—our Constitution—without providing them with information about that particular change was going to be I think undermines completely the integrity of the process of the referendum.

The second issue that we're asking the government about, and which we think is entirely reasonable, is to establish 'yes' and 'no' campaign organisations. This bill, in its current form, does not provide for 'yes' or 'no' campaign organisations to be established. This is a really dangerous precedent, because we know that the campaigns themselves provide us with vehicles through which we can ensure the integrity of the process and would make things very simple for the regulatory environment and for the proper conduct of the actual referendum. We note that when it comes to issues such as foreign interference that the 'yes' and 'no' campaign organisations provide the very vehicles through which we can test, assess and regulate to make sure that things like foreign interference don't occur. In their absence, there really is no mechanism by which the Australian government can assure itself that that sort of interference is not occurring.

The Director-General of ASIO, only two weeks ago, told Australians that we're seeing the greatest level of foreign interference that we have ever seen in the history of this country. We know that foreign interference is something that continues to grow around the world. To enable us to put full confidence in the integrity of the process and that there is no foreign interference in this really important decision that we're asking the Australian public to go and vote on, we would think that there should be provision of 'yes' and 'no' organisations through which we can monitor donations and foreign interference. It should be just as simple as finding an organisation through which we can determine how scrutineers will be able to be made available on the night of the counting of the ballots. It seems to me like this is a very simple and fundamental mechanism through which we can make sure that the ease, simplicity and streamlining of the delivery of this referendum could be assured. But, for some reason, those opposite—the government, are denying Australians the opportunity to have that particular provision.

The third matter that we're particularly concerned about is the fact that there's no funding available for these independent 'yes' and 'no' organisations that will be the vehicles through which we would be able to operate the integrity of this particular referendum. In the absence of any 'yes' and 'no' organisations and, therefore, in the absence of any funding to any 'yes' and 'no' organisations, we are left with half-baked bill here that seeks to provide a half-baked act. It does not afford the greatest amount of support and integrity to this system.

As I said in my original remarks, the integrity of the referendum is based on the information that is received by the voters, and consistency with precedent is something that should also give voters great confidence—that this government is taking this really seriously and is not using this mechanism to actually deliver a political argument. The reality is that this government has a bit of a track record so far of ticking and flicking election promises without any great regard for appropriate process or the integrity through which they seek to deliver it. So it's really disappointing, as we stand here today, after months of discussion and negotiation and the putting forward of an extraordinary amount of very good arguments for how the Australian public can maintain trust in the integrity of referenda in Australia going forward, that we sit here with a bill which is clearly seeking to politicise an opportunity because of the numbers those opposite have in the other place. And, sadly, they're obviously taking advantage of the numbers that they have here.

I call on the government to seriously think about making sure that you are honest with the Australian public. Don't stand here with a referendum before us whilst you are basically leaning on one side of the scales and trying to influence the decision of the Australian public. I think that, if you're going to ask the Australian public to change our Constitution, you should be allowing them to do it in an environment that is completely open, without caveat and provided to them without political influence.

I know that after tonight there will be a number of amendments put forward by a wide range of different parties in this chamber. The Labor Party, the Greens, many of the crossbench and, of course, the coalition will also be putting amendments forward in an attempt to see if we can make sure that this bill is actually going to deliver the kind of integral process that we believe is essential to ensure that the Australian public are given a fair and reasonable opportunity to make a change to their Constitution.

The problem that I have is with the track record of this government so far while it has been in government over the last nine months. It is a government that has been pretty quick to backflip. They often don't very well think through the policy positions that they put forward. We saw a lot of headline rhetoric when we came into the election, and now we're seeing ticking and flicking of those particular election commitments, without any real regard for the consequences that sit behind them and the flow-on effects of those decisions.

We know that many of their promises haven't been kept. We've seen broken promise after broken promise, and most often these promises have been broken because this government has not bothered to do the hard work to put in place the things that need to sit behind those headline promises to make sure that they're deliverable. Today we talked about 24/7 nurses in aged care. That's not deliverable, because the minister forgot to actually go out there and speak to the industry and realise that the workforce that was needed to deliver her election commitment just didn't exist. There were promises made about superannuation and franking credits: they weren't going to be touched. But somehow now they are. Of course, there were promises that your power bills were going to go down, and all we've seen is them going up.

They come in here as a government and say: 'It's okay. We're not going to give you all of those protection mechanisms that have normally been afforded to referendums in the past. We just want you to trust us that it will all be fine.' Their track record so far shows that I wouldn't really be trusting this government, and that's why, as the opposition, we're saying to the government: 'If you want the Australian public to absolutely trust you, put out there transparently the things you're prepared to do to make sure that the integrity of this referendum is assured and that this is the bill through which you are able to do it. Come forward and support the people's right to vote, but support the people's right to a fair vote and to have the information that they need through the method and the mechanism that they are most able to understand so that, when they turn up at the polling booth, they have full information to make their decision.' I have to say that the most disappointing thing would be for this bill and this referendum to fail because Australians think the mechanism is either unfair or biased. It would be a significant failure of this place if it were actually the political interference in the process that was the reason why this particular bill did not get passed and the referendum ultimately didn't get up.

I will reserve my right, as others have before me, to see what this final bill looks like after the amendments have been put to the chamber before I make a decision about how I intend to vote on it. Of course, there is much that could change over the coming days, with the amendments that are before us. As I said, I absolutely support the right of Australians to vote on important issues and to have their say on this particular issue, but I also support their right to have fair and unbiased information on which to base their decision when they go to the polls to vote in this referendum. I am absolutely a supporter of the appropriate mechanisms that this institution, the Parliament of Australia, has held proud since Federation, and I think that what we have before us today, what we are likely to see in the coming months and what we've seen from this government's behaviour in previous days is a government that's prepared to trash the convention that has led to this place being held in such high esteem for so long, in an attempt to tick and flick an election commitment. They are now prepared to provide a lopsided, one-sided approach to this.

I hope the government will listen to the concerns that have been put forward—some very valid concerns in the contributions that have made in the second reading debate on this particular bill. I ask them, for the sake of the integrity of this place, for the sake of the integrity of our referendum process: please make sure that you provide a fair and balanced approach to this referendum.