Peter Dutton’s claim that Labor is backing away from local and regional Indigenous voices in addition to a national voice is a “figment of his imagination”, Pat Dodson says.
The special envoy for reconciliation and implementing the Uluru statement from the heart has rejected the opposition leader’s claim on Monday, as he and prime minister Anthony Albanese strengthened their rhetoric against “disinformation” about the voice.
Community campaigning has begun on the voice, with Labor seeking support from across the political spectrum before the working group finalises its recommendations and a bill is introduced in March for a referendum in late 2023.
On Monday the former Nationals MP, Andrew Gee, joined the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, to campaign, while Liberal MP Russell Broadbent joined religious leaders in setting out the moral case for the voice.
Indigenous leader, Noel Pearson, urged Dutton “not to play a spoiling game”.
“Let’s not be the undertaker that buries this important and very promising prospect,” he told ABC’s 7:30.
Pearson said he was “appalled” that Tony Abbott, a “very strong advocate for constitutional recognition when he was prime minister”, is now expressing “reflexive opposition”, which he labelled a “travesty for the country”.
If the voice is defeated, Pearson said he will “fall silent” because “a whole generation of Indigenous leadership will have failed”. Nevertheless, he said is “optimistic” the referendum will succeed.
One of 15 questions Dutton posed to the Albanese government before the Coalition determines its position, is whether Labor will “commit to local and regional voices” as recommended by the co-design process led by Tom Calma and Marcia Langton.
Ahead of his trip to Western Australia, Albanese said there would be “structures that would feed into the [national] structure”.
“One of the things that Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people themselves are saying is that they want this to be the bottom-up and for there to be structures that allow for local voices to be heard,” he reportedly told the West Australian.
“Now, the precise structure of that is to be determined, and that might differ in different states.”
Dutton seized on those remarks, suggesting that it departed from the Coalition’s policy at the election of “wanting local and regional Indigenous voices to feed into policy and to provide that advice”.
“Now, the government’s – it seems in the last 24 hours – stepped back a bit from that,” Dutton told reporters in Perth. “I don’t quite understand the announcement from the prime minister, but we’ll get more detail.”
In December 2021 the Morrison government suggested it could establish local or regional voices first and later promised $31.8m to do so after the election, although Scott Morrison said publicly it was not Coalition policy to have a referendum on the voice.
Dodson said that the Calma-Langton report and the parliamentary committee he co-chaired with Leeser proposed regional and local voices.
“There are no doubt many other proposals around and considerations that will be the subject of greater discussion … with the Aboriginal people and the Australian public post-referendum.”
“None of that material is being pushed aside. It is a figment of [Dutton’s] imagination if he thinks that is happening. But all that detail and valuable work will be taken on board when it is relevant and that will be post-referendum and when we get down to discussing legislation.”
Albanese told reporters in Kalgoorlie that the voice “isn’t something that’s come from me or from the government … it came from a meeting at Uluru in 2017”.
“That came after thousands of meetings in communities, in remote areas, right around Australia.”
At a later doorstop in Perth, Albanese said the voice is about “recognition of Aboriginal Australians in our nation’s birth certificate and the fact that they should be consulted on matters that affect them and [we] will get better results if that occurs”.
Albanese said there is “a lot of disinformation out there” but support is growing, citing Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney and other major corporates.
Albanese said the voice will not give out funding, run programs, have a right of veto or be a third chamber of parliament.
Albanese said the government is “open to further suggestions” if people “want to be constructive and actually be participants rather than observers in this process”.
