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

I rise to add to an answer that I gave earlier today. During question time, I said:

Senator Cash tried to up the Barnaby Joyce comment and said, 'if we put the voice into the Constitution … we're effectively announcing an apartheid type state'.

Those words were said by another, and Senator Cash agreed with them, but the order of the conversation was as follows.

Senator Cash was a guest on the Sky News Bernardi program, hosted by former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, on 30 April 2023, where Mr Bernardi said:

… if we put the voice into the Constitution … we're effectively announcing an apartheid type state …

In response to the monologue in which Mr Bernardi made that statement, Senator Cash said, amongst other comments:

Cory you summed it up in one, Mr Albanese is asking the Australian people to put in place a constitutional right to make representations for a very small group of people in Australia, less than 4% of the population, to make representations to the Parliament and to the executive on any matter that concerns them. And this is a right that no other Australian will have.

She went on to say, later, in the interview:

… what is more offensive is asking Australians to divide each other on the basis of race.