Jacinta Price: Albo ‘doesn’t understand his own referendum’ after shocking Voice admission

Jacinta Price has accused Anthony Albanese of initiating “a referendum about something he doesn’t understand” after the prime minister conceded he had not read a controversial longer form of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has accused Anthony Albanese of “(bringing on) a referendum about something he doesn’t understand” after the prime minister conceded he had not read a controversial longer form of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

“For months the Prime Minister has claimed there is adequate detail on the divisive Voice and has told Australians to go read it,” Ms Price said, speaking from Alice Springs.

“But now we learn he can’t be bothered and has brought on a referendum about something he doesn’t understand.

“Instead of hobnobbing with the Yes23 elites at the unveiling of their Qantas corporate jet, he should do his job and read the details of the divisive referendum he is foisting onto us.

“These details were in the final report of the Referendum Council and have been lauded by the ‘yes’ campaign for year.”

Jacinta Price has taken aim at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

The question of whether a longer version of the Uluru Statement exists has dogged the pro-Voice campaign for weeks since it was released as part of a Freedom of Information request from the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

A nearly identical version of the longer document appears across a number of pages in the Final Report of the Referendum Council issued in 2017 under the note, “the shaded sections of text in the following pages are extracts from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.”

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price isn’t impressed with Albo. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“The Prime Minister is proposing to change our nation’s rule book, which would be the biggest constitutional change in our country’s history,” Opposition leader Peter Dutton said.

“Yet now we know that he hasn’t even read the supporting documents on the Voice and he’s making it up as he goes along.”

The comments came after Mr Albanese revealed that he had not read the longer document or the accompanying consultation reports.

“I haven’t read it,” he said. “There’s 120 pages, why would I?”

“I know what the conclusion is. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is one page. That’s the conclusion.”

Originally published as Jacinta Price: Albo ‘doesn’t understand his own referendum’ after shocking Voice admission