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

Here we are at the end of the last sitting week before the Prime Minister's referendum on his Canberra based Voice to Parliament. As you walk around and speak to Australians about the upcoming vote they are still unsure what it's all about. They don't actually understand what is actually being proposed by the Prime Minister or how it will impact our country. Intrinsically I know that Australians want to be fair about this, but they're being forced to make a decision without the necessary details, and that is unfair to Australians. The only certainty that they have about the Prime Minister's Canberra Voice is that it contains serious risk, it's divisive, it's completely uncertain how the High Court will interpret it and, if carried in a referendum, it would be a permanent change to our Constitution.

Despite what Labor seem to believe, Canberra does not know what is best. It's actually those who are on the ground living in rural and regional communities who know what's best. As a senator from regional South Australia I understand firsthand the challenges that are felt differently in the bush. Often those challenges must be addressed with flexible, innovative and unique solutions. The Prime Minister's approach to the Voice risks the needs of rural and regional Australia being completely overlooked. We on this side of the chamber understand that there is a better way—a better way than a top-down, permanently enshrined, elitist Voice based out of Canberra. We believe in the importance of having local and regional voices, bodies embedded in local communities, established at the grassroots.

It's disappointing that Labor has chosen to reject these alternative approaches in favour of a risky, untested body that will be permanently locked into our Constitution. Labor believes that Canberra knows best about what local communities need. The coalition understands that it's local communities that know what's best for them.