Referendum needs more detail: Lambie
You’re going to have to be very open and honest with the Australian people, you’re going to have to take them with you
JACQUI Lambie has pleaded with Anthony Albanese to “give us some detail” about his proposed referendum on the Voice to parliament – or risk it failing.
Her biggest concern, she says, is that it is “purely symbolism” and won’t actually help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Her plea comes after the Prime Minister, at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory, unveiled the question he is prepared to ask Australians at some point before the next federal election.
In his speech, he said: “We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple as ‘Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?’”
Senator Lambie said it was “fabulous” that there was a desire to enshrine an Aboriginal voice in the constitution, but Australia needed to see details first.
“Giving us the details after instead of beforehand is a real worry for me,” Senator Lambie told Sky News. “I’m surprised that Labor is doing that because the last nine years in government, they’ve always wanted the details upfront, so that’s a bit of a worry.
“I think that if you don’t give that detail before you run this referendum, I’m not sure that you’re going to get the votes.
“You’re going to have to be very open and honest with the Australian people, you’re going to have to take them with you.
“Please give us some detail. Otherwise you’re going to set this up to fail. Don’t just give me nice words, don’t give me symbolism anymore – I’ve had enough”.
Over the weekend, Mr Albanese refused to be tied down on the details of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
“I am not going to … go down the cul-de-sac of getting into every detail because that is not a recipe for success,” he said on ABC’s Insiders.
He said instead detail would come after the vote – at odds with his own Indigenous Minister Linda Burney who, in a prerecorded Q&A program, will on Monday night say it would be “nuts” for detail not to be released.
“There will be a lot of information out to the community about what people are voting on,” Ms Burney will tell the program on Monday night.
On Monday morning, Ms Burney appeared to backtrack slightly on her comments, saying there was already “plenty of detail” out in the public arena already.
“I understand that there is this debate around detail,” she told ABC News.
“But when you have a look at the fact that there has been 10 years of expert advisory groups, of parliamentary groups, of discussions with constitutional lawyers, of discussions with First Nations people, there is a lot of information already in the public arena.”