Liberals hit back at Anthony Albanese’s Indigenous voice to parliament misinformation claims

Senior Liberal frontbenchers have hit back at Anthony Albanese’s claim misinformation was undermining the voice referendum amid dwindling support for the government’s proposal.

Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Saturday. Picture: Jeremy Piper / NewsWire​

Senior Liberal frontbenchers have hit back at Anthony Albanese’s claim that misinformation was undermining the voice referendum amid dwindling support for the government’s proposal.

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said five claims the Prime Minister made during the voice debate were not supported by facts.

Mr Albanese has repeatedly blasted misinformation he said was being peddled by the No campaign to wreck the referendum and confuse voters.

He said misinformation and disinformation were preventing voters from considering the “very simple” referendum question before them. He has pointed to misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories when asked why the voice was losing support, including among Labor voters.

Five repeated claims by Mr Albanese include that it is “nonsense” that the voice would advise the RBA or on nuclear submarines, that the length of the Uluru Statement from the Heart was just one page, that the detail on the voice was simple, and that the voice referendum had nothing to do with treaty.

Senator Cash told The Australian there was “little in the PM’s claims which is supported by the facts” and Mr Albanese was unable to rule out issues that the voice would advise on. “If anyone is dealing in misinformation, it is the Prime Minister himself,” she said. “He certainly cannot rule out issues the voice will advise on and it is clear that the Uluru statement contained much more material than the single page he claims.”

Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said Mr Albanese needed to stop blaming “everyone else for his failure to explain his voice proposal” and he should take responsibility for a referendum failure.

“Anthony Albanese’s deliberate use of ‘misinformation’ as a political attack comes at the same time his government is seeking to make spreading ‘misinformation’ an offence under the law – it is reckless and lazy politics and unacceptable from the nation’s leader,” she said.

The attacks come as constitutional law expert George Williams told The Australian the voice would “absolutely” be able to provide advice on AUKUS if it impacted Aboriginal people, after Mr Albanese declared it a “nonsense” to suggest the advisory body would make recommendations on where nuclear submarines were located.

Professor Williams also suggested an established Indigenous voice to parliament might seek to provide advice to the Reserve Bank but that it would be up to the parliament to decide whether it would speak directly to the independent economic body.

“The voice can make representations on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and you would think there are defence matters which impact them sometimes, such as Indigenous people in the armed forces.

“If there is a link established with a matter of the AUKUS ­program impacting Indigenous people, then it absolutely could provide advice.”

Centre for Public Integrity chair Anthony Whealy said the voice might seek to make representations to the government on AUKUS in cases where Indigenous people were concerned about nuclear proliferation on their land.

However, he predicted the voice would lose its efficacy if it sought to make broad representations outside issues that directly affected Indigenous people.