Anthony Albanese denies blaming ‘white people’ for failure of Voice referendum

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has fired back at claims he blamed “white people” for the defeat of the Voice referendum, sparking a media storm.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office has fired back at claims he blamed “white people” for the defeat of the Voice referendum, sparking a media storm.

Mr Albanese was asked in Question Time on Monday if he was still committed to “truth-telling and treaty” after the Voice to Parliament referendum bloodbath.

During his response, the PM appeared to say he wanted to give Indigenous Australians time to deal with the outcome, “regardless of what white people voted in this referendum”.

The PM’s office strenuously denied that’s what he said, insisting he said “regardless of the way prople voted in this referendum”.

Radio station 2GB was quick to pounce on the comments.

Anthony Albanese is at the centre of a media storm, over comments he strongly denies making. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Ray Hadley told listeners the PM had “misspoke”.

“He said ‘white’ whether subliminally he was thinking about ‘white’,” the shock jock said.

Hadley said he had two missed calls from Mr Albanese since he had mentioned it on air, despite the Prime Minister “refusing” to appear on his program for the last 18 months.

“I am not going to be an apologist for him misspeaking but that is what he said,” Hadley thundered.

But the PM’s office told radio host Ben Fordham Mr Albanese had actually not said “white people”.

“It sounded like he said, ‘regardless of what white people voted’,” Mr Fordham said on his show.

“But the PM’s Office has been in touch and they say he used the word ‘way’.

“I accept the PM’s version of events. It’s more likely that he was trying to say the way people voted, as opposed to what it sounded like, how white people voted.”

Hansard, the official record of what is said in Parliament, backs Mr Albanese’s version of events.

Ben Fordham. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Ray Hadley. Picture: Tim Pascoe

Sky News host Paul Murray also heard “white people” and was quick to condemn Mr Albanese for his take on the referendum failure.

“The idea the result of 60/40 No is because white people voted against it is a complete blind spot about what went wrong on the weekend,” Mr Murray said.

News.com.au contacted the Prime Minister’s office for clarification and was told the Prime Minister did not use the word white.

While every state and territory apart from the ACT rejected the proposed Voice to parliament in Saturday’s referendum, Indigenous communities resoundingly supported it.

That support appears to have fallen slightly short of the 80 per cent predicted by the Yes campaign in advertisements before the vote, based on polling by YouGov and Ipsos.

Meanwhile, Mr Albanese continued to be grilled on the Voice failure in Question Time on Wednesday, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton asking him to confirm if he personally supports “Makarrata, treat and truth-telling”.

“What we have campaigned for, I said very clearly, was to listen to First Australians about matters that affect them,” Mr Albanese said.

“If those opposite think that we should not listen to Indigenous Australians about matters that affect them at all, then they should say so.

“Of course, we know that is the case.”