Anthony Albanese’s voice result speech was magnificent — but came far too late

Anthony Albanese has delivered a magnificent speech in conceding defeat for the referendum on the indigenous voice to parliament.

The Prime Minister should have delivered that speech at the beginning of the campaign not at the end, after losing.

Albanese should have offered a spirit of unity and healing for the first Australians through the great democratic system he acknowledged and that all Australians were respected for their vote whether it was Yes or No.

Offering reconciliation as a part of the next chapter Albanese did not dwell on the past as he has since the night of the election when he unilaterally promised a referendum to implement the Uluṟu statement in full.

Albanese, in the face of defeat, was humble and accepting, didn’t seek recrimination and offered a pathway for a better future for all Indigenous Australians which abandoned the dark threat that only the status quo would exist after the referendum if the Yes vote failed.

Indeed, changing his language, Albanese specifically said no-one in Australia wanted the status quo of Indigenous disadvantages and would work from Sunday for a new pathway.

Of course, his miscalculation on the process of the referendum was presented in the light of being a conviction politician who lived up to his word but at least he didn’t seek to blame anyone but himself and took responsibility for the failure, almost.

There is no doubt his words were genuine and well directed but after his speech he couldn’t help but point the finger at the lack of bipartisanship for the failure of the referendum.

The common theme is that Peter Dutton is a wrecker but he can’t avoid his own responsibility for a referendum process embarked on which was flawed and bound to fail.

In the questions and answers that followed the speech Albanese started to go to default position of offering a graceful invitation that was rejected because of a lack of bipartisanship.

His opening remarks accepting defeat were fantastic and offered hope instead of recrimination but, as usual, he started to slip into political justification and blame.

Albanese should have walked away at the end of his initial speech and quit while he was ahead and offering a clean, clear restart.