Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not being flippant with the Constitution. What I'm actually doing is citing the Solicitor-General. It doesn't really get a lot higher than that. If anyone in this room thinks that they know more about the Constitution than the Solicitor-General, then feel free. It doesn't get a lot higher than former chief justices of the High Court and former justices of the High Court who all have said that the various concerns that are being raised here are not valid, in a manner of speaking.

Senator Cash, you assert that there's going to be some implied right to be consulted. You're the only one saying that. We don't accept that. The Solicitor-General doesn't accept that. The former judges of the High Court who've been involved in making recommendations don't accept that. What I've said to you is that there is nothing in the constitutional provision itself that requires the parliament or the executive government to consult. Of course, subsection (iii) grants various powers to the parliament, and a future parliament may decide to legislate about whether representations of the Voice need to be considered by the government, but that is not this government's intention. And, as I say, the Solicitor-General and many other eminent former High Court judges have made clear that this concern, among many others, does not have any validity.