Liberals’ voice legacy risks being ‘trashed’, says Ken Wyatt
Former Coalition Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt has warned the Liberal Party’s legacy on Indigenous constitutional recognition will be ‘trashed’ if Peter Dutton opposes the referendum.
Former Coalition Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt has warned the Liberal Party’s legacy on constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be “trashed” if Peter Dutton opposes the referendum to enshrine a voice to parliament.
Australia’s first Indigenous cabinet minister – who appeared alongside Anthony Albanese on Thursday to release the proposed constitutional amendment – said the voice idea was commenced by the Liberal Party, which has long championed formal recognition of Indigenous people.
As the Prime Minister ramped-up pressure on Mr Dutton to back Labor’s referendum, Mr Wyatt said “Liberal voters need to know that four consecutive prime ministers had in mind constitutional recognition, which transitioned to the voice”.
“This is not a Labor Party driven initiative. The legacy will be trashed (if Mr Dutton opposes the voice),” Mr Wyatt told The Weekend Australian.
“If (the referendum) wins … we’re out of step then. What I would hate to see is Australians voting yes and the Coalition are the naysayers.”
The 70-year-old pushed back against concerns the constitutional amendment, which empowers the voice to advise on policy and laws across the executive government, could lead to High Court challenges.
“This fearmongering about executive government and interfering with it, is not an issue in practice,” he said.
“People will say constitutionally enshrining it means it has the higher order. It doesn’t because the wording … does not take away the ultimate authority of parliament.
“All the people of my age, like Marcia Langton and a lot of those people (on the referendum working group) won’t be around in 10 years’ time. If we follow the natural trend of Indigenous people dying earlier, most of us will be gone and we won’t see another change like this one in our lifetime.”
Former Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven, a member of the government’s constitutional expert group, accused Mr Dutton of dealing the Coalition out of negotiations on the voice.
The constitutional expert said Labor’s voice model had taken “all pressure off Dutton for bipartisanship”. Professor Craven, who first conceived the idea of a constitutional voice with Noel Pearson, Julian Leeser and Damien Freeman, said Mr Dutton “should have given something for pro-voice conservatives to trade with the government”.
“Empty-handed, they were increasingly outflanked by Indigenous activists,” Professor Craven writes in Inquirer. “This left decent moderates within the government’s Indigenous working group, such as (Sean) Gordon and (Ken) Wyatt, floundering.
“It placed Dutton’s pro-voice colleague Leeser in an invidious position. Dutton may yet rue his strategy. If (improbably) the referendum gets up, it will be in the worst possible form. Dutton has guaranteed this.”
Mr Albanese said Mr Dutton and Mr Leeser had provided no suggestions on the draft constitutional amendment he announced at the Garma festival in July last year. “No matter how much detail is put out, Peter Dutton will say, ‘What about more detail?’ That’s the game that’s being played here. And he should make a decision of where he stands on this issue,” said Mr Albanese, who rejected claims the voice would trigger High Court challenges.
The Weekend Australian understands Mr Dutton is unlikely to announce a position on the voice referendum, expected to be held between October and December, until a joint parliamentary committee reports back. The government will table its referendum bill next Thursday ahead of a final vote in June.
Mr Leeser hit back at Mr Albanese’s assertion that Mr Dutton was “playing games” and urged the Labor leader to show more “flexibility” on the voice design.
“The Prime Minister has never responded to answer (Mr Dutton’s) 15 questions,” the opposition legal affairs spokesman said.
“We have genuinely tried to work through these issues. I am sad that it’s gotten to this point.”
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