Richard Marles says ‘Australian people always get it right’ as he reveals Voice disappointment

Despite his disappointment in the Voice, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said he acknowledges that the Australian people “always get it right”.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has declared the Voice referendum is not a rejection of reconciliation, urging Australians to embrace Indigenous people who are “hurting.”

The Victorian MP said that, while the Labor Party accepted and respected the result, it should not be seen as a rejection of First Nation peoples.

“The Australian people always get it right, and we acknowledge the result of this referendum,” he told the ABC’s Insiders.

“Obviously, for those of us who are supporting the Yes campaign, it wasn’t the night we hoped for and I am disappointed, but the Australian people always get it right, and we absolutely accept this result and what this means is that Australians don’t want to see this pursued through a change to the Constitution.

“But I don’t take last night as any vote against reconciliation. Nor do I take this as a vote against a will on the part of the Australian people to see a closing of the gap in social disadvantage which affects Indigenous Australians.”

Deputy PM Richard Marles cast his vote at Geelong High School on Saturday. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Marles said it was now “a moment to be embracing Indigenous Australians.”

“Certainly, my sadness today, I feel most acutely in terms of how this does bear on Indigenous Australians,” he said.

“They will be hurting.”

Mr Marles said he had “no regrets” about pursuing the $360 million referendum despite accepting that the government was “completely aware” history was not on their side when the Liberal Party refused to offer bipartisan support.

Many Yes campaigners were left shattered at the result. Picture: Damian Shaw

“Was it a good idea to press on?,’’ host David Speers asked.

“Absolutely, because there are times where difficult things are achieved. Did we understand that it was more difficult? Of course we did,’’ he said.

“But we didn’t go to the election saying, ‘we will take this to the Australian people so long as Peter Dutton agrees’.

“Now, what Peter Dutton did is a matter for him ultimately, but our commitment was that we would take this to the Australian people and we weren’t offering anybody else a right of veto in relation to that.”

“So, I don’t have any regrets that we took this to a referendum.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said he did not have any regrets. Picture: Evan Morgan

However, opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said Anthony Albanese needed to “take a very good look at why he put the country through such a divisive process.”

“Peter (Dutton) called for, I called for, many on the Coalition side called for Mr Albanese to just stop,’’ Senator Cash told Sky News.

“As I said, this was a referendum that Mr Albanese did not have to have, you saw the reports this morning coming out of the Yes23 campaign that campaigners months ago said to Mr Albanese do not proceed down this path, but Mr Albanese chose to.

“So Mr Albanese is responsible squarely for putting Australians through the pain that he has done so over the last 12 months.”