Radio Interview – Hack | Prime Minister of Australia
DAVE MARCHESE, HOST: Anthony Albanese, welcome to the Shake Up.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: My absolute pleasure to be with you and I’m hoping it’s a good weekend for everyone, but particularly a good weekend for the first Australians.
MARCHESE: Well, look, at this point in the campaign, we’re a day out. All the polls appointing to No. How hopeful are you that Australia is actually going to say Yes?
PRIME MINISTER: I am hopeful. One of the things that happens with polling, of course, is that young people are massively underrepresented, as are people in remote communities and people who aren’t sitting by the phone waiting to participate in a survey. And what I have felt on the ground right around the country – and this week I’ve been in every state and territory – is a real positivity. Australians, when they look at what the question is that’s being asked, and they’re being asked by Indigenous Australians for just two things. One, to recognise them in our nation’s birth certificate, our Constitution, and secondly, to do it through a Voice that would be a non-binding advisory committee on matters affecting Indigenous Australians, just the opportunity for Indigenous Australians to be listened to, because we know when people who are directly affected by policies are listened to, you get better outcomes.
MARCHESE: Prime Minister, you mentioned young Australians in particular there, and the faith, the hope that you have in them that they will carry a Yes vote. I mean, there’s going to be so many young Australians listening now thinking, ‘I don’t understand this, I will be voting No. There’s not enough detail’. We’ve been speaking to so many who’ve been telling us this week after week. Some that we spoke to today actually have told us they don’t even know what the vote is about. Have you taken young people’s support for granted?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. What I’d say to your listeners is read what the constitutional change is that’s proposed.
MARCHESE: Is it too late, though?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s certainly not. Most Australians have not voted and most Australians will vote tomorrow. And it is such a clear and simple proposition.
MARCHESE: Why do you think so many people are saying they don’t understand it if it is simple? Is it the messaging that’s failed?
PRIME MINISTER: No. The strategy of the No campaign has to sow confusion has been to talk about everything but what the question is. And the question is very clear. The recognition bit is ‘in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of Australia’. That’s pretty clear. Then it says there shall be a body to be called the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Voice. Again, that’s the what. Then it says what it will do, it says it may make representations to the Government and Parliament about matters affecting Indigenous people. Again, pretty clear. And then the third and last point is simply the primacy of the Parliament: the Parliament shall make laws about the functions, the powers, procedures and composition of this body, the advisory body, the Voice. So, again, very clear as well, making it clear that this isn’t a right of veto, this is not going to be a funding body, simply a body to give advice. And then it has the power, of course, of its ideas. But it’s still up to the Parliament, still up to the Government.
MARCHESE: Prime Minister, recently you’ve said that you won’t legislate the Voice if this referendum fails. Why is that?
PRIME MINISTER: Because I accept that in the democratic process, if people decide to vote No in this referendum, then I’m not going to say, ‘righto we gave you a say in this, but what we’ll do is we’ll ignore that the next day and we’ll just legislate it anyway’.
MARCHESE: But if the Voice would help in all of the ways that you’ve been saying over the past few months, why not go ahead and implement something that could make such a big difference in people’s lives?
PRIME MINISTER: Because we’re a democracy, and democracy and the views of Australians must be respected. And Indigenous Australians themselves all agree that if people vote No then you can’t just override that. But this is a very simple and clear request that comes, not from politicians, this comes from Indigenous people themselves who gathered at Uluru in 2017.
MARCHESE: This is the Shake Up on Hack. I’m Dave Marchese. I’m speaking with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Voice to Parliament referendum, which is coming up tomorrow. Prime Minister, First Nations people across the country are hurting right now. Some elders have told the ABC that they’re witnessing some of the worst racism that they’ve seen this year. If it is a No vote, will the toll that this has taken on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been worth it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Indigenous Australians have made this request. This isn’t something that has come from politicians.
MARCHESE: But the timing of the referendum was up to you. The timing of the referendum was.
PRIME MINISTER: The timing of the referendum should have happened earlier. The truth is that governments going back to John Howard promised to have a referendum to recognising Indigenous Australians in our Constitution, but they didn’t do so. The Morrison Government did the same thing.
MARCHESE: So, Prime Minister, if it is a no, though, what can First Nations people expect from your government? Because a lot of people are telling us they’re hurting, they’re worried, they’re anxious about no on Sunday. What can they expect when they wake up that day? From your government?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what I’m focusing on is getting a Yes –
MARCHESE: But should there not be a focus on –
PRIME MINISTER: What there should be a focus on is achieving a positive outcome. And what we have before us is the opportunity tomorrow, a once in a generation opportunity, to change our Constitution, to recognise Indigenous Australians, something that should have happened back in 1901 but didn’t, and should have happened beforehand, that previous governments have promised they would do but have failed to do.
MARCHESE: What’s next for reconciliation if this fails?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re determined to talk about failure. I’m talking about success.
MARCHESE: A lot of people are telling us they’re worried, and a lot of First Nations people are telling us they’re concerned about what all of the polls are saying. They’re thinking about it a lot, they’re anxious about it. And so they’re wanting a plan from the government.
PRIME MINISTER: The plan from the government is success tomorrow, success and getting the referendum passed. I’ll tell you, one way to ensure failure is to talk about failure prior to people casting their vote. Australians have the opportunity tomorrow to change the Constitution. Just as there was a fear campaign about the apology to the Stolen Generations that happened in 2008, what we need to do is take up this opportunity because it is a once in a generation opportunity to do the right thing.
MARCHESE: What do you think of how the media has covered this debate? Because we heard from Noel Pearson today suggesting there should be a discussion about Murdoch news operations, News Corp after this referendum. Do you agree with that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think that a range of the media commentary in this debate over issues, including a quite absurd debate about how long the Uluru Statement from the Heart was. But some of it as well goes back to political leadership, or lack thereof. Peter Dutton determined after the Liberals lost the Aston by-election to go down the road of destruction and dissemination and disinformation, asking questions about things like ‘would the Voice have an impact on interest rates and advise the Reserve Bank?’ Things that they know is, quite frankly, absurd. I’m the Prime Minister of Australia and I don’t get to advise the Reserve Bank on interest rates.
MARCHESE: So, were you ready for how ugly this debate would get?
PRIME MINISTER: I expected that there would be issues with any referendum. Change is going to be difficult. But I took it, and I think it was reasonable to say, that when Peter Dutton appointed Julian Leeser as the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister, then that was a sign, given Julian Leeser’s long history of support for constitutional change through a voice to Parliament, that that was a sign that the Liberal Party would continue what has been a bipartisan position of support for constitutional recognition for a period of time. Peter Dutton chose not to do that. He chose to not put forward any alternative. If people are thinking of voting No tomorrow, they need to do so in the knowledge that there is no alternative being put forward here. Just more of the same.
MARCHESE: All right, well, we do appreciate you making the time to speak with us. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, thank you very much for coming on Hack.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. And please think about voting Yes tomorrow, because I think it is very clear that the request of Indigenous Australians should be accepted tomorrow and we’ll wake up on Sunday as a better country if that occurs.