Shaq-out: PM’s office ducks and weaves about O’Neal’s Voice visit

A political loophole has seen entire pages of previously secret documents detailing how an American NBA legend came to be the voice of the Voice blacked out.

Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Julian Leeser has said the prime minister’s office has “something to hide” after documents about a public meeting with American basketballer Shaquille O’Neal to endorse the proposed “voice to parliament” were released after a Freedom of Information request largely blacked out.

“It would appear Labor is all talk on integrity, but when scrutiny is applied to them, they are quite happy to divert from this principle,” Mr Leeser said.

The documents were not subject to the same scrutiny as ministerial correspondence because the event was organised through the prime minister’s Marrickville electorate office.

Rather than being set up by the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a determination to withhold information revealed that the August 27 event was organised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office in suburban Marrickville, protecting it from queries about ministerial correspondence.

“It is my understanding that Shaquille O’Neal was meeting with Anthony Albanese in his capacity as the Prime Minister of Australia, not Anthony Albanese in his capacity as the Federal Member for Grayndler," Mr Leeser added.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, photographed in Sydney holding a press conference with Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Meanwhile a leading expert in Freedom of Information laws has accused the Albanese government of being no better than its predecessor after the request for information about Mr O’Neal’s endorsement of the Uluru Statement came back heavily redacted.

Commenting on the government’s redaction of the documents lawyer and FOI expert Peter Timmins said, “you would have hoped to have seen a better reading of the tone at the top about transparency (since the Albanese government came in) but … we have so far seen little change, and there is still a culture that says if you can knock someone back, you do so.”

Anthony Albanese speaks during the Garma Festival at Gulkula on July 30, 2022 in East Arnhem, Australia, advocating for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament. Picture: Tamati Smith/Getty Images

The documents reveal negotiations between the prime minister’s office, Mr O’Neal’s team, and the office of Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney.

“Shaq wants to promote the Uluru statement from the heart and had previously arranged to do an event with Linda before inviting the PM,” a member of Albanese’s office wrote in an email on 15 August.

“Shaq would like to say a few sentences in support of the Uluru statement if we can provide them.”

A spokesman for Mr Albanese declined to comment specifically about the matter, however noted that at the time the prime minister explained to a radio audience that “(Mr O’Neal) approached me and I think people should chill out a bit, basically.

“The fact is, that Shaq’s appearance meant that people are talking about it.

“And one of the things we need to do is to raise awareness in the community that this referendum is coming, that there’s a need for debate around it.”