Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No matter what the Prime Minister and his ministers say, every day it becomes clearer and clearer that the Voice that's being put forward to the Australian people to vote on later this year is nothing other than a risky proposition. I commend my colleague Senator Scarr for outlining his views on why that is the case, and I want to go to that as well.

The Labor Party, the Prime Minister and the ministers have tried in earnest to convince Australians that there's nothing to worry about—absolutely nothing to worry about; there will be nothing to see here by way of unfettered flow of information from the Voice to government, controlling certain actions. Well, no matter how hard the Prime Minister and the ministers try to lull Australians into a false sense of security—and they have tried extremely hard to convince us that there is nothing to worry about; I'll give them that—today we saw the cat out of the bag, courtesy of Mr Dean Parkin, a member of the Yes campaign, who was caught saying exactly what we all knew was the case. There are questions that this government hasn't been able to answer. Will the Voice, for example, be able to provide advice to the government on whether Australia Day's date should change or, indeed, be abolished? We've had conflicting answers in this place, but we now know that campaigners for the Yes23 campaign, the formal campaigning body, believe it is something the Voice will be able to do. The cat's out of the bag. There is something to see here. This isn't some innocuous entity that won't have an impact on everyday Australians' way of life or the future of our country or how we celebrate our national day.

And, despite all of these assurances, despite all of these claims there's nothing to worry about, it's clear: this is what they are aiming for. This just proves that the Voice is risky. It's unknown. And, if it passes, it will be permanent. This will be bad for our nation and its future.