Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to questions regarding the Voice and this government's failure to be honest with the Australian people about what this powerful new body will demand. The Labor government is deliberately keeping Australians in the dark about what the Voice will do and what its proponents intend it to do. This is a referendum on the question of changing the Constitution to create a new Canberra based body with the right to make representations on every decision of government which affects citizens of Australia. Some of its proponents have openly said that the Voice will 'punish' any government or political party that does not support one of the demands of the Voice. Mr Thomas Mayo has recently said:

… we are going to use the rulebook of the nation to force them.

He said:

A politician or party that ignores, or legislates against that collective Voice will do so at their peril because we will be organised and ready.

Where were these comments made? At a protest against Australia Day of course! This government would have us believe, according to its answers here today, and in the other place today and yesterday, that the Voice will not ever involve itself in a debate about Australia Day. The government cannot possibly stand behind the accuracy of that statement by their minister. They are proposing to create a body with the constitutional right to be consulted on any matter relevant to Indigenous Australians and yet at the same time claiming that the body will never make representations to government on a debate that many of its proponents engage on every single year.

This is absolutely typical of this government's approach to this referendum. On the one hand they're out there saying to Australians: 'This referendum isn't about the details. Just trust us; we're politicians. We'll sort out the fine print later and you don't need to worry yourself about it.' On the other hand we have the responsible minister not only disparaging members of the opposition for asking relevant questions about how her government's policy will operate but also claiming to know for a fact that the Voice will never make a representation to government that it should change the date of Australia Day. This is just an incredible and, frankly, unbelievable proposition for the minister to put.

What are the people who attend rallies and protests against Australia Day every year going to make of this government's suggestion that the Voice for Indigenous Australians will never make a representation on the date of Australia Day? Although the Albanese government refuses to tell Australians what the Voice will look like, how many members it will have and how they will be appointed, it is easily foreseeable that some of its members—perhaps many of its members—will be strongly against holding Australia Day on 26 January each year. As proponents of this Voice have said, the Voice will 'punish' any party that ignores its representations.

What the minister and this government could have said is that the Albanese government guarantees that it will not change the date of Australia Day—not in this term, not ever. That would be a commitment in line with the wishes of the majority of Australians and, importantly, a commitment that executive government can make because it is within the control of the government. What is not clearly within the control of the government is the guarantee that the Voice will not make a representation on a matter that will be clearly within its scope. It is extremely disappointing that the Labor government are choosing to approach this referendum not just by refusing to answer the questions that Australians have about their proposal but by actually giving answers that they must know are inaccurate at best and misleading at worst.

This referendum is about whether Australians are being told enough about what the Voice will be, how the Voice will work, what the Voice is going to do and what impact it will have—whether we're being told enough to decide to embed that very body into our Constitution forever. The government needs to stop attempting to mislead Australians and properly engage in debate about what the Voice will look like and what it will have the power to do.

This government insists that this referendum to change the Constitution is just a modest request—and we heard that several times here today, we have heard that several times in this place before today and I'm sure that we will hear that a lot more between now and whenever the referendum is going to be conducted—but how can we know that that's the case? How can we know that this is just a modest change when the government that is proposing it can't actually definitively explain to us what the Voice is?