Minister for Indigenous Australians
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Good afternoon. We are on the beautiful Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. I’m here with Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and also Nita Green who’s a Senator for Queensland. We’ve had a fabulous morning meeting with community groups, including the Torres Strait Regional Council, and listening and talking about the Voice to Parliament. I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE: Thanks very much Linda. It is great to be here in the Torres Strait and it’s been a very positive welcome. And I want to thank the people of the Torres Strait for that warm welcome. People have come from the islands, the representatives in the Torres Strait Regional Authority, to talk to us about a Voice to Parliament. Of course, the Torres Strait Regional Authority is a representative body, it provides advice and advocacy. It’s an example of what can happen when there is a body that allows people to be consulted on matters that directly affect them. A Voice to Parliament would enrich our entire nation. It’s about lifting our whole nation up, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, recognising the great privilege that we have sharing a continent with the oldest continuous civilisation on earth that’s been here for some 60,000 years. And our nation’s birth certificate should recognise that our history here did not begin in 1788. It didn’t begin then. But it didn’t end then either. Since then, we’ve become a very successful, multicultural nation. But we need to acknowledge the privilege of First Nations people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and recognise them in the nation’s birth certificate, which is our Australian Constitution. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well they are absolutely interested and very supportive of a Voice to Parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples because they see that that is a way in which they can advance issues that directly affect them. Here, of course, in the Torres Strait Islands, people are particularly affected by climate change. And that’s why Chris Bowen visited the Torres Strait just a week ago. They are interested in that but they also want to lift up opportunity for their people in education, in health, they want to close the gap in life expectancy. And they see a Voice to Parliament as being one way in which they will be able to advocate for the sort of changes that they will have a sense of ownership over as well. We know that if you consult people and give them that sense of ownership over change that impacts them, you’ll get greater buy-in, you’ll get better results. And that’s why there’s such strong support. But my visit here is as well to remind the whole of the Australian population that it’s not just a matter of Aboriginal people, it is also Torres Strait Islander people that will be recognised in our Constitution if the referendum is carried and that will have a Voice. And this is, of course, a very important part of the world here and an important part of our nation of Australia.
JOURNALIST: The Greens have indicated today they’ll play the hardball on safeguard mechanism negotiations. You were pretty clear you wouldn’t compromise on the 43 per cent target. Are you open to Green amendments on the legislation that will be required for the mechanism? And on the Voice, quickly if I may, what work has been done to develop public education (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER: Well on the safeguard mechanism, we’ll be consistent with what we said during the election campaign. The Government has a mandate. We’ll continue to pursue that mandate. The Greens will continue to look for product differentiation for their own political purposes. But what I’m interested in isn’t playing politics with this, I’m interested in making sure that we deliver on the commitments that we made of 43 per cent by 2030. That includes the safeguards mechanism that has already been put in place. Bear in mind, this is a process that was put in place by the Abbott Government. What we will do is make sure that that certainty that business is requiring in order to invest goes forward. And we’ll be consistent with that.
On education on the Voice, this visit is a part of the education process. There will of course be legislation required to have a referendum. And as part of that, the Australian people will continue to start to talk more and more about this. We know that there’s already extraordinary level of detail out there from the work that Marcia Langton and Tom Calma did. We’ll continue to talk about those issues. We also are leaving the space though for the Coalition and for the Greens party and everyone else to come on board with this important national project that will lift us up. So that’s why I’m being deliberately non-prescriptive. I want people to have a sense of engagement. We’ll continue to consult with Indigenous Australians but also to consult community organisations and consult across the Parliament as well.
JOURNALIST: Do you accept the Governor-General’s statement (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: The Governor-General acts upon the advice given to him by the Prime Minister. The Governor-General did that. The Governor-General has made statements on these issues. In the last days there’s been two statements and those statements speak for themselves, where the Governor-General points out that he acted upon advice. And it was Scott Morrison’s choice and the former government’s choice to keep this secret, to have this shadow government operating in the dark for the Australian people. They’re the people who need to be held to account here. And I find it astonishing that we’re still seeing no sense of regret from the former prime minister for his undermining of our parliamentary democracy and the Westminster system which we rely upon. This was an undermining of Cabinet government by the Morrison Government and they need to be held to account for it.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: To answer the last question first, we’ll make those decisions as the process goes on. But one of the things that we’re doing is going out there and having dialogue with people. That’s the importance of this stage. One of the things that people said to me prior to Garma, including the Leader of the Opposition, was that they weren’t aware of what the question is. Well they now have a proposal for the question and a proposed change of words in our Constitution. Now if there are variances on that, then we’re willing to have discussions. We want to bring people on on this journey. This isn’t something that I seek government ownership of. This needs to be the entire Australian nation going forward. And I want to bring the nation forward in as united a way as possible, recognising that some people will disagree, as happens in a democracy. And that’s fine too. But I hope that we have respectful debate. And I hope also that we have debate based upon the facts and not a rejection of a proposal based upon something that simply isn’t true. And it’s pleasing that some people, including Malcolm Turnbull, who had previously spoken about a third chamber, have changed their position. That’s a good thing. I’d say to people of good will, this is an opportunity to consider these proposals and to deal with them. Sorry Clare, you threw in a few questions there. Remind me of the others?
JOURNALIST: Just in regards to the advice to Morrison from the department.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Clare. Look, I understand the advice that I’ve received. Obviously, I’m not getting advice from my department here on Thursday Island. But the advice that I’ve received, which I’ve released or spoken about publicly, was that there were three documents. One was advice to the prime minister from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet based upon a request from the prime minister and his office. The second was then a correspondence that was relayed to the Governor-General by the prime minister. And then the third, of course, was the documentation from the Governor-General that’s been released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. I’ll receive legal advice on Monday. I expect that that may include further information as to what documentation there was. I’m spending this time, these three days in Queensland, talking about the Voice to Parliament but also talking about the jobs and skill summit. I await the advice from the Solicitor-General which will be received on Monday
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to get your reflections on today’s jobs figures and the unemployment rate is obviously quite dire among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that we’ve been talking about here with the Torres Strait Regional Authority and with local councils is about future employment opportunities, how we increase economic activity. In an hour or so I’ll be meeting with businesses that are located here in the Torres Strait as well about how we create economic opportunity for people here so that they can remain here, they don’t have to go to the mainland in order to seek employment opportunities. What we know is that today’s figure is very low, of 3.4 per cent. But that doesn’t reflect itself in a uniform way across the nation. There’s still significant pockets of high unemployment, including for Indigenous Australians, but also in some communities that unemployment rate is much higher, and particularly amongst young people. We do need to make sure that we take the opportunity that is there from the relatively low unemployment figure across the board, see that some opportunities can be opened up as employers look to employ people in a tight labour market, could see an opportunity for the long-term unemployed to gain placements that have found it difficult over a number of not just months, but years. And I met with employment service providers last night in Brisbane who were talking about just that, that we need to use this opportunity that is there to make sure that those people who have been left behind are given the opportunity to get training, to get that one-on-one support as well. I think in employment services there was a bit of change in the structures towards accounting so that what mattered was how many appointments have been made, how many appointments and phone calls had been made or turned up to, rather than that one-on-one support that can often make a difference to getting the long-term unemployed into employment. We need to seize this opportunity. And that will be one of the agendas for the jobs and skills summit is how we maximise the opportunities for people because of the tight labour market, both to alleviate those long-term unemployment figures that apply, including to Indigenous Australians, but also that businesses require that. We need to make sure that businesses have access to skilled labour.
JOURNALIST: John Howard has expressed concern about the Voice. (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: It’s very clear that the Government remains sovereign and the Voice has an advisory role only. And I’d say to say to Mr Howard, look at the details, look at the comments that have been made by constitutional lawyers, former members of the High Court, who make it very clear that the Voice is simply an advisory body, it doesn’t change any of any of the parliamentary processes which are there. And just as the apology to the Stolen Generations that was delayed for a long period of time brought the nation together and strengthened the nation, a Voice to Parliament enshrined in our Constitution will also strengthen the nation and bring it together.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: I don’t agree with that assessment and I don’t think that was overwhelmingly the assessment of people who were at Garma. With respect to John Howard, he wasn’t at Garma. And with respect to John Howard, I don’t think that overwhelmingly that I would regard his government as a model for how to advance reconciliation in this country. What we need to do is to actually listen to people. I don’t want this to be a top down thing. This isn’t my proposal or my structure. As I said at Garma and in countless interviews and as I’ve said as part of this press conference again, there’s enormous detail was worked through by Marcia Langton and Tom Calma about what a structure of a Voice should be. But the structure of a Voice will also be legislated. It will be subject to the Parliament and subject to the determination of the House of Representatives and the Senate that is there at any particular point in time. It’s not something that is my proposal. And it shouldn’t be my proposal. It needs to be a proposal of the Australian people. What I’ve done is, and as I made clear at Garma as well, the question and the constitutional wording isn’t something that is my proposal, it’s something that has been worked through extensively, just like the Uluru Statement from the Heart was wording that was worked up over half a decade at least prior to 2017. Now, since 2017, there has been five years of work done on structure of the Voice and what it might look like. And so that detail is out there. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a very simple question which could be asked that I have put forward as a proposition on the table for people to consider, which is should the Australian Constitution be amended to provide for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, and then a recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s first people and in recognising that three points that make it clear that the Parliament is not impacted, or any of the powers of the Parliament are not impacted by having an advisory body which will consult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on issues that affect them.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: No it won’t. It’s not about that at all. And there is nothing in the wording of proposed constitutional change that would alter them at all, that has any implications there. One of the things that we will need to do, but I take some heart from some of the misinformation which is there. Because when some people will not be able to find good reasons that stack up to oppose the Voice, then you have other issues being raised which will be able to be dealt with, which is quite clear that the advice is it will have no impact whatsoever.
