Testy PM’s Voice is hoarse and he’s only got himself to blame
What was intended to be a feel good, bring us together proposition has led to a bitterness and rancor that will leave the country terribly divided no matter the outcome.
Opinion
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If Anthony Albanese is testy about the Voice, it is surely because he has only himself to blame for the fact that it is now heading for the rocks.
The past three days have only highlighted the ways in which what was intended to be a feel good, bring the country together proposition has led to a bitterness and rancor that will leave the country terribly divided no matter how the final vote comes down.
For years, if not decades, the PM has been an advocate for Aboriginal rights and treaty and, depending on the day of the week, compensation and sovereignty.
Now, having first tied the Voice to the treaty and “truth telling” demanded by the Uluru Statement, he is suddenly forced to pretend the three items were never linked, or that if they were, Australians should still vote on the Voice as a stand-alone item.
This explains why he was so testy about this newspaper’s coverage of his youthful support for reparations, showing his glass jaw by snarking about it on the floor of parliament.
It is also why he tied himself into knots over his support for a treaty when firm questions were put to him on Radio National.
Yet one does not have to go back to 1986 to see Albanese’s record on these things is clear.
Before becoming PM, Albanese regularly talked about “voice, truth, treaty” and “delivering the Uluru Statement in full.” Now, he wants to wave a magic wand and pretend that none of that ever happened.
There are other problems, too. The PM’s lead in parliament on the Voice, Indigenous Affairs minister Linda Burney, has repeatedly shown herself not up to the job.
In Question Time this week she did not even bother to duck simple questions about a future Makaratta commission, instead reading canned answers full of motherhood statements barely connected to the matter at hand.
Had the PM listened to advice to separate the Voice from constitutional recognition, or even gone for a more limited Voice with strict limits on its scope, things might have been different.
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