Anthony Albanese’s Indigenous voice flip ambushes Labor MPs

Parliamentary committee splits over Peter Dutton’s calls for households to be issued with fliers putting the Yes and No cases for the voice.

Peter Dutton has been calling for the normal procedure of information campaigns to be retained and demanded Anthony Albanese provide more details on how the voice will work before the referendum.

A parliamentary committee has split over Peter Dutton’s calls for all households to be issued with pamphlets putting the Yes and No cases during the Indigenous voice referendum process.

Labor government members of the all-party committee, expected to support the previous refusal to include a mail information campaign, have been jammed by Anthony Albanese’s backflip this week on the for-and-against pamphlets being sent out.

It is expected Coalition MPs and senators will back the Opposition Leader’s calls for, and the Prime Minister’s new position on, an information campaign. The report of the Labor-chaired multi-party committee of senators and MPs examining the machinery provisions of the referendum bill is to be released on Monday.

The expected minority recommendation to retain the traditional neutral pamphlets for the referendum, due between September and December, followed overwhelming public submissions to the electoral matters committee asking for their retention.

Mr Albanese and Labor have for months opposed the issuing of the traditional information pamphlets and argued against releasing details of how the voice to parliament would work if the referendum passes. But this week Mr Albanese backed down and said the government would agree to issuing the pamphlets as well as an equal “zero” funding for the Yes and No cases.

Mr Dutton has been calling for the normal procedure of information campaigns to be retained and demanded Mr Albanese provide more details on how the voice will work before the referendum.

This week Mr Dutton said information about the referendum was essential for all Australians voting in the referendum.

“Whether you agree with the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ case doesn’t matter. It’s about informing Australians and providing them with the most information that you reasonably can, in a measured way, so that people can have some of their own questions or hesitations answered or have their own views reinforced in relation to how it is that they want to vote,” Mr Dutton said.

“The fact is that many people, particularly those where English is not their first language, they do want to sit down, particularly older Australians, not online, but … with the booklet in front of them so that they can – in a language that they feel most comfortable with – read all the detail and then if there are further questions, they can research from there. That’s a perfectly reasonable position.

“The other thing of course that the Prime Minister has to do is to provide equal funding for both sides of the argument. That is completely and utterly rational. It’s the precedent and it should be the case in relation to the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ case.”

An Institute of Public Affairs analysis of the public submissions to the joint parliamentary committee found 97 per cent of submissions that voiced a clear position on the information pamphlets supported sending out information in “some form”.

The analysis also showed 84 per cent of submissions clearly expressing an opinion backed retention of the system without change.

John Storey, research fellow at the IPA, said Mr Dutton “was right to pressure the Prime Minister into distributing critical information on the proposed voice … to all households, ensuring there is a free and fair debate”.

On Thursday Mr Albanese told parliament he wanted more bipartisanship towards the referendum and was “open” to what form of committee could be established to examine the next raft of referendum legislation.