Joe Hildebrand: Penny Wong’s Voice bungle was an appalling own goal

Penny Wong’s Voice comments have dunked Labor headfirst into the Indigenous culture wars that Peter Dutton and the Coalition have been obsessed by, writes Joe Hildebrand.

When South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs tried to celebrate prematurely upon catching Steve Waugh he infamously fumbled the ball.

Waugh’s apocryphal words to him afterwards became the stuff of legend: “You’ve just dropped the World Cup.”

Likewise Anthony Albanese might well say to Penny Wong after her excruciating Voice bungle: “You’ve just dropped majority government.”

The Foreign Minister’s casual and cavalier suggestion to a podcast that the doomed referendum proposal was going to happen anyway is about as stupid and smug as it gets, and an appalling own goal for Labor in the final days of a campaign that has otherwise been incredibly disciplined and effective.

When I saw the first report of it late last night my eyes popped out of my head and I immediately texted the story to a veteran Labor campaign strategist.

“God help us if this takes off,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: AFP

Needless to say it did take off and there was not much even God Himself could do about it.

Wong’s hurried claim that she wasn’t talking about the Voice at all but rather just reconciliation frankly doesn’t pass the sniff test but even if true her comments were dangerously sloppy — especially for a minister who usually communicates with robotic precision.

In politics perception is reality, and the overwhelming perception today is that the Albanese government has a secret plan to resurrect the Voice.

And this also means that Labor has been dunked headfirst into the Indigenous culture wars that Peter Dutton and the Coalition have been obsessed by in the final days of the campaign.

Peter Dutton has accused Labor of having a “secret plan” to resurrect the Voice to parliament after comments made by Penny Wong. Picture: Adam Head

Just as they seemed to be the ones distracted by an issue that was second order at best for most Australians, Penny Wong said: “Hold my beer!”

So what the hell is going on here? Why on earth is this happening?

The first thing to know is that there is no secret plan to resurrect the Voice. Even if some in the government wanted to, it is clear that it would be electoral suicide and no member of cabinet is that stupid.

Nor did Wong intentionally plant the seed when shooting the breeze with “Betoota Talks”. You only need to look at the fallout to see how smart an idea that would have been.

The truth is both more banal and more bothersome: The truth is that progressives genuinely believe that such things are indeed inevitable.

That is the very nature of the “progress” that gives progressivism its name and why you often hear them talks of being “on the right side of history” as though the future is a foregone conclusion.

And so Wong no doubt merely thought she was stating the obvious, which is why all those red flags failed to materialise. And no doubt everyone in her circle agrees — not to mention the podcaster interviewing her.

And the biggest sting in the tail is it was precisely this kind of complacency and echo-chamber attitude that led to the Voice failing in the first place.

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Penny Wong’s Voice bungle was an appalling own goal