WA Mornings With Nadia Mitsopoulos
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Voice, constitution, referendum, Indigenous Australians
E&OE
Nadia Mitsopoulos
I’m going to reset it and get Liberal WA Senator Michaelia Cash on the line. You, Senator, also have five minutes to state your case. Good morning and over to you.
Senator Cash
Good morning, Nadia and good morning to your listeners. Look, tomorrow’s referendum as we all know is important. It affects all Australians. Now to be clear, though, the referendum is not about recognition. All major parties support that. The sad thing is, recognition could and should have been achieved without tying it to a risky Voice. Mr. Albanese wants to go much further than recognition. He wants to enshrine a voice in our constitution with few limits to its scope, and few details. People I’ve been speaking to in WA they all want the best possible outcomes for Indigenous Australians, but they are not convinced that the Voice is the best way to do it. Now there are very good reasons people are not convinced about the Voice. And I urge voters to look carefully at these reasons before casting their votes. First, the Voice is legally risky. Australia’s constitution is our most important legal document, every word can be open to interpretation. What that means is, the High Court of Australia will ultimately determine its powers, not the parliament as Mr. Albanese keep saying. There are no details. The government has said it won’t provide key details until after the referendum. This is a big decision. Australia has not changed its constitution by referendum since 1977. And yet, Mr. Albanese is asking Australians to vote, without knowing exactly how the voice would operate. Labor is effectively putting the cart before the horse. There is of course, no doubt, and this is really sad that the Voice divides us. A constitutional body for one group means permanently dividing Australians and as Senator Nampijinpa Price says, our nation should be one united, not two divided. The Voice itself won’t help Indigenous Australians – more bureaucracy is just not the answer. Again, as Senator Nampijinpa Price points out, establishing a new bureaucracy, which the Voice would be, is very much like the failed entities that have existed in the past, such as ATSIC, which was abolished with bipartisan support. The problem is that if the Voice fails like ATSIC did, it will not be able to be dismantled, because it’s in the Constitution. Now, no issue will be beyond the scope of the Voice, and that’s because Labor’s proposed Voice model is not just to the Parliament, but to all areas of “Executive Government”, which means no issue is off limits. And this then means the Voice risks, delays and dysfunction. The risk of legal appeals and delays means the risk of dysfunctional government. Now to say that the voice will be costly, and bureaucratic, is an understatement. The National Indigenous Australians Agency? It has 1400 staff, and it already gets $4.3 billion in funding every single year. And of course, once the Voice is in our Constitution, it will be permanent. It won’t be undone. Now, Western Australians know all about the disastrous Aboriginal Heritage laws that had to be scrapped by the Roger Cook Government after a statewide outcry. Bad legislation can be scrapped by a parliament, but if the Voice is in our Constitution the Parliament can’t get rid of it.
Nadia Mitsopoulos
But the parliament will debate it. So, you talk about the lack of information and the lack of detail that the Yes side has given, but the role of the Parliament is to thrash out that detail and have the final say in how it looks?
Senator Cash
Detail after Australians have voted on it. And in any event, the Constitutional amendment that is actually being inserted into the Constitution, is, “The Parliament shall subject to this constitution.” You cannot trump a constitutional right. Now, Nadia, I do have though, comments in relation to there are better ways forward than this Voice. What I believe is needed, no matter the results on October 14, is accountability. And that accountability must start with the many government agencies that already exist to help Indigenous Australians. We’ve got to get to the bottom of why money is being spent on Indigenous Australians and why it’s not helping some of our most marginalised Australians. It’s only through accountability, at all levels, that we will be able to reach the best possible outcomes for Indigenous Australians, and that’s the thing we all want. You know, we say if you don’t know vote no, some say if you don’t know then, you should find out. But the point is that…
Nadia Mitsopoulos
Michaelia Cash. Senator, I need to leave it there because that is the timer going off. I gave you both five minutes for a final pitch and that is what you have provided. Thank you very much for your time.
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