Anthony Albanese hits out at Coalition for ‘conspiracy’ over Uluru statement

Anthony Albanese cited Pauline Hanson when he said the opposition’s Voice “conspiracy” belonged to a “fringe party”.

Anthony Albanese says the Coalition is making One Nation look like a “mainstream political party” and has accused them of peddling conspiracies over the Voice to parliament.

He labelled the Coalition a “fringe political party” after the opposition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claimed that National Indigenous Australians Agency documents revealed via freedom of information that the Uluru Statement of the Heart was 26 pages – not just one.

The head of the NIAA has written to Senator Price clarifying the Uluru Statement was just one page, and other excerpts of the FOI document are “background and excerpts”.

Meanwhile, Megan Davis from the Uluru Dialogue has slammed the Coalition for peddling misinformation after an historical clip of her emerged on Twitter in which she describes the Uluru Statement as being “18 pages”.

Much like what NIAA chief executive Jody Broun wrote to Senator Price, Professor Davis said the document she was referring to was a segment of the referendum council’s final report called “Our Story”, which details the background to the forming of the one page Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed Professor Megan Davis and accused the Coalition of peddling a ‘conspiracy’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The Uluru Statement from the Heart is one page. It is 439 words,” she said.

“The fact that a single No advocate has used her privileged media platform to confuse the mainstream media and our political leaders so dramatically about the Voice tells you everything you need to know about the way Indigenous issues are treated in this country.”

She said that since the statement was established, the Uluru dialogue had encouraged politicians, the media, and the Australian people to read more than just the one page statement, and that the “Our Story” segment, as with many other documents, allowed further engagement.

In question time on Wednesday, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley put to the Prime Minister another past quote of Professor Davis – that the Uluru statement “isn’t just the first one page statement, it’s actually a very lengthy document of about 18 to 20 pages”.

“Does the PM agree?” she asked.

Professor Megan Davis says the Uluru Statement is just one page. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Albanese backed Professor Davis’ earlier comment – that the statement was one page and accused the Coalition of “reheating” a conspiracy debunked by fact-checkers in April.

“I thank the Deputy Leader for her continuing to ask questions about this conspiracy that has been out there for a long period of time,” he said.

He then tabled articles from ABC/RMIT and AAP FactCheck that both found the claims to be “nonsense”, Mr Albanese said.

“This is a conspiracy, this is a conspiracy – Tony Abbott establishes a referendum council, it does its work leading up to 2017. They published a report online and give it to the government, the government that was in office in 2017. It’s been available online ever since 2017 – but we’ve covered it up?” he said.

“I mean, for goodness sake, you couldn’t make this up.

“This is absolute conspiracy and nonsense. It shows that they’ve become a fringe political party. They are making One Nation look like a mainstream political party with this nonsense.”

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney also fielded two different questions about Makarrata – including whether she could rule out financial payments being made by the Commonwealth as part of a treaty process.

She said the government supported the Uluru statement from the heart – which includes a call for an independent Makarrata commission – “in full”, but said the government was focused on the referendum.

“Our priority is constitutional recognition through a Voice, a Voice that will help drive better results for Indigenous people, and that was what the Australian people will vote for later this year,” Ms Burney said.