Radio interview – WSFM Jonesy & Amanda
AMANDA KELLER, HOST: Well, it seems for a lot of people, the Voice to Parliament has been a confusing topic. What will change for us, what does it mean? These are the questions people are finding themselves asking, especially over the last few days after the Voice referendum passed the Senate. The questions need an answer and the best person to explain all of this to us is the Prime Minister himself, Mr Anthony Albanese. Good morning.
BRENDAN JONES, HOST: Hello, Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning Amanda, g’day Jonesy.
JONES: How are you? I didn’t realise that you were a T-swizzle fan. I thought you were an Echo & the Bunnymen sort of Triple J guy. But you’re a big fan of Taylor Swift?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I’m a bit of both. I really got into Tay Tay through Folklore and Evermore when she released those two albums, and I find, I think her song writing is extraordinary, so I really like her.
JONES: And it’s good that you’re the PM now, because you’ll get a primo seat.
KELLER: Oh you’ll be in the box for sure.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don’t know about that, but we’ll see how we go. I’ve got three Origin games, two of them Parliament sitting, and one of them I’ll be in Lithuania. So, I’m not always in control of my diary.
JONES: Well it’s a good thing you missed Origin last night.
KELLER: Yes, we all wanted to be in Lithuania last night.
JONES: I would have liked to have been in Lithuania.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. We might just focus on the Ashes, I think.
KELLER: Let’s do that. We take the wins where we can get them.
JONES: We have spoken to you at length about the Voice, and as we get closer to the referendum coming up, I believe in October now, the questions are coming in thick and fast.
KELLER: We asked people to email us some of the things and I think we’ve got a couple of questions here that seem to hit the spot with a lot of people who are thinking of voting no and their concerns. So, here’s one from David, Prime Minister. He said, ‘Will white Australia have to pay black Australia in compensation?’
PRIME MINISTER: No. Really clearly, that isn’t what this is about. It’s about just two things – it’s about recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation’s Constitution, recognising the great privilege we have of sharing this amazing continent of ours with the oldest continuous culture on earth. So, it’s a simple thing that’s happened everywhere else in the world does that where you have an advanced economy that’s a former colony. And the second thing it’s simply about, is giving Indigenous people a body, a Voice, in which they can be consulted and listened to about matters that directly affect them. So, that sort of argument has been put up for a whole lot of things, and people might like to think back to the apology that was given to the Stolen Generations in 2008. And it was said then, it’d have all these consequences, there was this big fear campaign, and that’s because if you’ve got no serious arguments against it, then there’s a whole lot of fear campaigns. There’s no downside here, only upside.
KELLER: We got a question from Tom, who said, ‘How powerful will this Indigenous advisory group be?’
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it will be a consultative body. It won’t have a right of veto over the Parliament, it doesn’t change any ways in which our laws are made. It simply will have the opportunity to have a voice on those matters that directly affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. So we know, for example, there’s an eight-year life expectancy gap. If you’re a young Indigenous Australian, if you’re a teenager today, you have more chance of going to jail than going to university. Now, we need to do better than that. Infant mortality rates are third world. We need to do better than that. And we can do better. And what this is about, Aunty Pat Anderson said it really well at the press conference, when you consult people, you just get better results. And that is really what this is about.
JONES: Because it seems, and this is Jenny, she wrote, ‘We have the homeless and people struggling to pay rent and buy a home. How come we are wasting money on a referendum when even the Indigenous people don’t want it?’
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Indigenous people overwhelmingly want it. All the surveys show that somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of Indigenous Australians want this. This came from them. This isn’t something that’s come from Canberra. There was a five year process leading up to a First Nations Constitutional Convention, when some of your listeners will have heard of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. That’s where it came from. Delegates from all over Australia came together and they said, ‘yes, we want to be recognised in the Constitution, but this is the form we want that recognition to take.’ So, it is important for Australia to go forward. If not now, when? We’ve been talking about this since Mr Howard spoke about constitutional recognition as Prime Minister last century and we need to, I think, do better. The New Zealanders, for example, they had recognition back in the 19th century. Canada did it last century. Australia, I think, needs to do this and we’ll feel better about ourselves as well.
JONES: And how much will this cost for the taxpayer when it passes, if indeed the yes vote gets through?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think this will save money. And the reason why it’ll save money is that everyone knows that there’s been billions of dollars expended on education, health and housing. Governments of all persuasions have, with the best of intentions, expended a lot of taxpayers’ money trying to close that gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. But the truth is that in so many areas, it’s not going forward, it’s going backwards. It’s not going forwards to the targets, for example, on year 12 completions. Now, if the money is spent better and more efficiently and in a way that gives people that ownership over the way that programs are run by being listened to, the Voice won’t run any programs itself, it won’t be a funding body. It will simply be an advisory body, just like we have a range of other advisory bodies. But this will be a special one, because it will be listening to people who, of course, are the original owners of the land that we share with them.
JONES: And it’s ceremonial. So, in summary, it’s not going to cost us as far as reparations go. We’re not going to have to pay Indigenous people rent or anything like that.
PRIME MINISTER: No, absolutely not.
JONES: It’s not that.
KELLER: It’s not a third chamber of Parliament.
JONES: And it’s not a third chamber of Parliament. It’s not apartheid.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it certainly isn’t. And people should have a look at, there’s three clauses in the constitutional changes proposed, and it’s pretty clear, I think, if people look at it. It says, ‘in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia, one, there shall be a body to be called the Voice. Two, the Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.’ And the third is important because it’s about the primacy of the Parliament. And it says, ‘the Parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.’ So, on an ongoing basis, the Parliament remains completely in charge. All that the constitutional change is is the principle, and the principle is simply that we should consult Indigenous people on matters that affect them.
JONES: Seems fair enough to me.
KELLER: Absolutely it does.
JONES: Well, Prime Minister, thank you for joining us again. I’ll just give you a hot inside tip, after 8:30 this morning, we’re giving away Taylor Swift tickets, okay? Don’t tell anyone.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh I might see if I can ring in.
KELLER: Disguise your voice.
JONES: That might be under parliamentary privilege.
PRIME MINISTER: The line that I rang in this morning, I reckon that’s a pretty special line.
KELLER: That’s the hotline. You’ve got it.
JONES: Thank you for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the hotline? Talk to you after 8:30.
KELLER: Thanks, Prime Minister.