Champion of Yes Anthony Albanese willing to own defeat? No

Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Christmas Day. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Thomas Parrish

Anthony Albanese’s claim that the voice referendum was not a loss for him ignores the ­enormous political capital he burned by ­insisting the vote go ahead despite polls showing it was headed towards a thumping defeat.

It also ignores the fact the voice failure has left him without a policy agenda for Indigenous Australians more than halfway into a term of government.

The Prime Minister did not have a back-up plan.

Desperate for a reset after a messy year, Albanese used a Christmas Day interview to distance himself from the voice ­result in declaring it “wasn’t a loss to me”. “It was never about politicians, it was actually about the most disadvantaged people in our society,” the Prime Minister told 2GB radio.

Albanese was probably trying to make the point that the failure of the voice should not be seen through the prism of the ­government’s decline in Newspoll this year, but as a missed ­opportunity for Indigenous ­Australians.

But it was phrased badly and leaves him open to accusations he was distancing himself from the voice campaign.

Albanese is failing to take responsibility for an outcome that has produced no benefits for the people he was apparently trying to help.

The Prime Minister is effectively abdicating his role in the disaster by saying he had to go to the referendum with the voice model as it was what the Indigenous leaders wanted.

This logic is flawed as Albanese was the one who had the power, and his experience should have compelled him to seek a different course when it was clear there would not be bipartisan ­support for a constitutionally ­enshrined voice.

It would not have been a broken promise to begin implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart – including a legislated voice – while delaying a referendum until there was bipartisan support. It certainly would have been a better outcome for Indigenous Australians.