Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. This month the Prime Minister told Ben Fordham that the Voice 'is not about a treaty'. But in May the Prime Minister said that treaty and truth telling are:

… very much a part of the next phase, if you like. And one of the things that a Voice to Parliament would be able to do is to talk about Makarrata—the need for agreement making and coming together after a conflict.

Why did this tricky Prime Minister say one thing to one group of Australians and completely the opposite to another?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and I thank whoever it was who interjected about my T-shirt because, yes, Ben Fordham has exposed the fact that at a Midnight Oil concert I wore a Midnight Oil T-shirt. I know! Hold the front page! At the Oil's last ever concert I wore an Oils T-shirt. What I said on Ben Fordham was that the referendum isn't about a treaty and isn't about truth. It's about one thing. It is about voice. It's about recognition and it's about listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that we get better results. That's what it's about. But the opponents of the Voice—you wonder why. The member who asked the question said this on Insiders on 23 July: firstly, 'I want to see constitutional recognition of our First Australians.' Well, we're all agreed then. So tick, tick.

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The Prime Minister will pause. The minister for climate change will cease interjecting. The deputy leader will be heard in silence for her point of order.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a point of order on relevance. There was no T-shirt in the question. There was no quote from me in the question. There were your own words, Prime Minister, in the question and your own contradiction about treaty or no treaty.

Milton Dick (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

You may resume your seat. The Prime Minister is referring to comments he made on the radio station. I would suggest interjections are highly disorderly, so do not interject. The Prime Minister won't respond to the interjections.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm speaking about what this referendum is about. It strikes me that the opponents of the referendum—those who are advocating a 'no' vote—want to talk about everything but what the question is about: recognition and listening in order to get better results. That is what it is about. But the deputy leader went on to say this about the Voice, because she was asked:

The voice is important in the way that it may close the gap and the way it may improve the lives of Indigenous people.

Well, we agree with that, too. So, then you wonder why it is that they're not supporting it. And they come up with the idea that it's legislation, and they say this: 'All legislation requires exposure drafts.' That's what she said, and 'It requires conversations, it requires debate; I mean, it will include all the things that actually produce good legislation at the end of the process, and that's what I want to see.'

Well, a yes result in the referendum will see the Voice being legislated before this parliament as a result of that good process. That's the whole point here. Those opposite are so desperate to make a political point at the expense of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that they want to talk about everything but what is in the referendum in the last quarter of this year. (Time expired)