ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I have been here before many a time, particularly as Minister, I, as the Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Minister. We funded refurbishment of the Royal Flying Doctor Service here. We funded also some heritage buildings and upgrades. There was an arts precinct here as well that we funded, as well as some roads around the district. And prior to that, I was the Water Shadow Minister, at a time where the Menindee lakes didn't look like what they do now as well. So, I've been here, probably this is my fifth visit, I think, over the years as an MP, but before then, a long time ago, we set up Broken Hill Young Labor Association when I was the president. We literally drove out a couple of times from Sydney and back for meetings here. It's a really warm town. And I have received a very warm welcome today. And I really appreciate that.
BILL ORMONDE, HOST: Well, I suppose that brings us to today. Why are you here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I am here one, to visit Broken Hill. It's about time that the Prime Minister visited. I want to make sure that I'm the Prime Minister for the whole country. So today, I started off in Canberra at The Lodge and Parliament House. We had some Cabinet committee meetings and then came to Broken Hill. And I'll finish up the afternoon in Port Lincoln, in South Australia. Before tomorrow, I had to Mutitjulu in the Northern Territory. And one of the things I'm talking about is the referendum that's being held this Saturday. And people are voting, of course, in advance at pre-poll. I attended the pre-poll booths and thanked the people who were handing out both for the Yes and the No campaign, participating in the democratic process and assisting that. But there were a lot of people helping the Yes campaign here in Broken Hill. And that gave me a great deal of heart. It was very positive, the reception on the polling booth here.
ORMONDE: Does it give you a lot of confidence heading into the vote?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people are voting as we speak, of course. And something like 2.5 million Australians have already cast their vote. And I think if people concentrate on what the vote is, it's a really simple question. The first part of it just says, 'In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of Australia'. Pretty straightforward. And then the form of recognition Indigenous Australians have asked for is for a Voice. That is a representative body that can make representations to the government and to Parliament. It won't change the decision-making processes that will still be up to the Parliament, up to the government. But what it will do is enable First Nations people to be listened to. And we know that we get better outcomes when you engage with people who are directly affected by a policy. So, there's nothing to fear here but everything to gain.
ORMONDE: Well, I mean, do you feel there's been a fair bit of misinformation about the place? I mean, anecdotally, in Broken Hill, there seems to be a lot of people who, both sides, that there seems to be misinformation or just confusion around the Voice?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there is a lot of misinformation out there. But it's a really straightforward proposition. It's a non-binding advisory committee. So, it won't have right of veto over government policy. It won't be a funding body. It won't run programs. It just will be able to make representations on issues to close the gap. We know there's an eight-year life expectancy gap. There are gaps in the suicide rates in Indigenous areas, like it's a fact that you're more likely, if you're an Indigenous young male, to go to jail than to university. We need to do better than that. And that's why a No vote leads us nowhere. It doesn't provide an alternative path forward. There's no alternative being put forward. Indigenous people gathered at Uluru way back in 2017 and said, 'This is the form of recognition that we want'. And that's why I think it's such a gracious invitation from the first Australians for the rest of us to join with them on that journey of reconciliation.
ORMONDE: One of the issues raised by a number of graziers in outlying property stations is a concern about will they lose their land or will something happen there? Could you address that?
PRIME MINISTER: That's part of the fear campaign. And it will have no impact on that whatsoever. Look, this is about areas like community health, areas like education, getting kids to school, giving Indigenous young people the same opportunity that non-Indigenous people want. And Indigenous parents want the same that other Australians want for their kids. They want them to have an opportunity to improve their lives, to have a quality of life going forward, to be healthy, to be respected. And some of the fear campaigns out there are just absolute nonsense. This body will only have the power of its ideas. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. It won't make any decisions on behalf of government. It will just make representations to government.
ORMONDE: The ABCs polls, for the time being, say the Yes is at an average of 41.2 per cent and the No is ahead at 58.8 per cent. How confident are you that the vote will get up?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we can turn that around. And I am confident that if people actually look at what the question is, the constitutional change which is proposed, it's a very modest change. Australians are generous people. And this isn't something that came from politicians. This is something that came from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves. And I am really hopeful that Australians, when they examine it, will think with their heart, yes, but also with their head. Will think about how do we create that better future and greater opportunity? How do we overcome disadvantage in this country which Indigenous Australians still are suffering from? And the answer to that, I think, is that if we listen to people about matters that affect them, we will get better outcomes. We know that through programs like Indigenous Rangers programs, community health programs, Justice Reinvestment. The programs that have been successful have something in common. They're ones that have that Indigenous agency, if you like, or ownership over the programs. And that is not surprising. The other thing that will come with that is if Indigenous Australians have that sense of ownership and agency, then they'll also have greater responsibility for the outcomes. For 122 years, we've done things either to or for Indigenous Australians, often with the best of intentions, sometimes not, but often with the best of intentions. But the truth is that we're failing, the system is failing. So, we need to try something better. And a non-binding advisory committee is not a threat to anyone or to anybody. It just will lift people up. Just like the Apology to the Stolen Generations was a moment of national unity, so should this be.
ORMONDE: I'm not sure if you saw the article in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald about Wilcannia recently as well. I think it came out on Friday or Saturday. Just generally, it mentioned some of the people or some of the people quoted were some of the people you met today from Maari Ma, Richard Western CEO and Nola Whyman. But some of the others in Wilcannia, some of the residents there, they have just a general scepticism about government and that really, any government can achieve anything with any policy. I mean, they have a general scepticism. How do you sort of overcome that? And how do you break through to those people?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's understandable because their experience of their lives is that governments haven't made a difference, a positive difference to their lives. They've been promised a lot of things. You know, I got questioned this morning about why we were proceeding with the referendum. And I said, we promised we would. Now, the former Government promised they would before 2019 as well, do something with the Uluru Statement was 2017. It arose out of a process that was begun under Tony Abbott. And John Howard promised in 2007 that he'd hold a referendum for constitutional recognition. One of the things I'm determined to do is to be a politician of conviction. That when I say that we're going to do something, that we carry it out. And this is an opportunity, not for government to do things in isolation for Indigenous Australians in places like Wilcannia, but for us to listen to people on the ground in Wilcannia and other communities. I've visited Wilcannia some time ago when I was the Indigenous Affairs Shadow Parliamentary Secretary, way back in 1999, and talked with the community there about what was happening. And we had a regional forum with Murdi Paaki, with groups in western New South Wales. And the truth is that all these years later, we're still dealing with massive problems when it comes to health and education and housing. And that's why we need to listen to people. And I think that will be a part of overcoming the understandable scepticism that's there about whether governments are going to improve people's lives. The whole point of the Voice is to listen to people so that governments actually respond to the people on the ground, rather than just sitting in an office in Canberra and making decisions for them.