VOICEOVER: I present the Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister.
MATT, HOST: Yeah, he's in the studio with us this morning.
ABBY, HOST: Yeah, and just before we get to some questions that you might have, 13 10 60 about the Voice, we were just talking off air about a visit to The Lodge.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. You’re in.
ABBY: Thank you so much.
MATT: You invited us, you were asking us to come.
PRIME MINISTER: It'd be fun.
MATT: Yeah, agree.
ABBY: Do we get a party? Has anyone had a party at The Lodge?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
MATT: No?
STAV, HOST: Not even a housewarming party when you moved in?
PRIME MINISTER: You don't get a party, it's a very serious place.
STAV: Fair enough.
PRIME MINISTER: It's not that serious, I've got a vinyl player there.
ABBY: Okay.
MATT: That's good.
STAV: He's a DJ. You can spin some decks, mate.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, absolutely.
MATT: We'll go back, do a little.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s on.
MATT: Of course, the Voice vote is next weekend. It's going to be a big moment in history for our country. There's a lot of information from Yes camp, No camp, all over the place. What we thought while we've got you here is give our listeners an opportunity, just to ask you straight up any questions they have.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
MATT: So, 13 10 60. Cam, you are on with the Prime Minister.
CALLER: Hi, hi, how are you? How are you going Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Cam, I'm well.
MATT: Hang there, buddy. You’ve got a bad line, we’ll come back to you Cam.
STAV: See if we can fix that up.
MATT: We'll go to Debbie in Mango Hill. Debbie, you're on with the PM. What's your question?
CALLER: I just want to know, how is the Voice going to change the aggression that Indigenous people have against us, like Invasion Day and all this type of stuff? How's the Voice going to change all this, unless we all work together?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. Well, the idea of this is to work together, to bring the country together. And Indigenous Australians, of course, gathered at Uluru in 2017 about what form recognition should take. And what they said was that, yeah, we want to be recognised, but we want to be recognised with something that's lasting. And that's where the whole idea of the Voice has come from. It's been developed over a decade. The idea that you'll have a body made up of Indigenous Australians, selected by Indigenous Australians, to make representations to the Federal Government and the Parliament about issues that affect Indigenous Australians. So, it will have the power of its ideas. If it comes up with a good idea, then governments should adopt it. And it will provide that voice. When we listen to people who are directly affected by an issue, we get better outcomes. And we know with Indigenous communities, there are great success stories. Some of the community health programs, Indigenous Rangers, Justice Reinvestment, they all have something in common. They've got that sense of ownership from Indigenous people. And there's something else, as well, that the Voice will do, it will give people responsibility for outcomes, as well. And I'm very confident that we'll get better results.
ABBY: It is true that anger does come from people being unheard?
PRIME MINISTER: It does. And the frustration is there and it's time to listen.
MATT: All right, let's see how Cam's line's going now. Cam, you're back on with the PM. Have a shot.
CALLER: Hi, how are you going?
MATT: Good.
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Cam.
CALLER: Hi. Thanks for taking the time to answer a question I have. I really appreciate it. I just wanted to say that most Australians are very kind. They will support any idea that is going to benefit Australian people. So, most people are, times are very tight financially for most people. They're just sort of typically struggling to get by with their families and work and they will support anything. But I think, a lot of Australians have one question and that would be, what is this going to cost me financially? Is this going to be a negative for me in some way? That's all the only question most people would have. Other than that, people would support anything that's going to benefit Aussies.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, thanks, Cam. That's a good question, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. This will actually save money. Because what will happen is that instead of people in Canberra, bureaucrats with the best of intentions, making decisions on behalf of Indigenous Australians, without listening to them, what you'll get if we listen to people, is more efficiency. You'll get the dollars going to where they should go, you'll get the spending made much more efficiently. And that's why this is actually a pretty fiscally conservative position, if I can put it that way, because there's no cost to this, there's no financial cost. I'm convinced that it will save money. There's been a lot of money, billions of dollars have been spent on Indigenous affairs and yet we're only meeting, or on target to meet, four out of the 19 targets. We have an eight-year life expectancy gap. There are gaps in health and education and housing. We need to do better. And if we listen to people, we will do better. The other thing is the cost. This is about helping a group of Australians, three per cent of Australians, it won't have a direct impact at all on non-Indigenous Australians directly, but it will help them. It's a bit like, I reckon, marriage equality. Before the campaign, there was talk of, oh, well, this will ruin existing straight marriages, this will have all this impact. People will be marrying bridges and there was all this nonsense out there. The truth is, you know what it did? It just gave a minority of people, in this case, same sex couples, some rights they didn't have before, without taking anything away. And that's what this is. All upside, no downside. All gain, nothing to lose here from anyone.
MATT: There is a message going around that, and it's obviously by the No campaign, saying that there will be people who lose their houses because land will get claimed and all of a sudden people will have assets that get taken away from them. What would you say to that message?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two things. One, that it's nonsense, complete nonsense and made up. But secondly, also, to me, some of the arguments that have come up from the No campaign just highlight that there isn't a strong case to vote No. That's why things are being made up in this campaign. If there was a legitimate case, and some people might put the thing of, you should never change the Constitution. Okay, if that's your view, that's a legitimate reason to not vote Yes, if things should stay the same as they were in 1901. But the nonsense which is out there, the misinformation, which is why as well, the main slogan of the No campaign, which basically encourages people to not get informed, is, I think, exposes the lack of argument against this. This should not be a political issue. And that's why people like Julian Leeser, the person appointed by Peter Dutton as the Liberal Party's Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister, is out there strongly campaigning for Yes. As are people from all of the crossbenches and people from across the political spectrum. This should be, and I believe will be, a moment of national unity. Remember when the Apology to Stolen Generations happened? Peter Dutton walked out of that, but Brendan Nelson showed leadership at that time, as the Liberal Party leader. And it just brought the country together. We felt better about ourselves once that happened.
MATT: We've got time for one more question and I don't want to be the one to wrap you up, because you're way above me when it comes to power, but Lisa?
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Lisa.
CALLER: Good morning.
MATT: Hi.
CALLER: How are you? Good morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.
ABBY: What's your question, Lisa?
CALLER: I just have a question, you just mentioned with the first caller the process that Indigenous people will be voting for their representation in the Voice. So, it's a two part question. How would those Indigenous people be selected, given that there are people that are one per cent Indigenous, via DNA testing? And two, do they get two votes? Do they vote in that process and then still vote in the normal process, for want of a better word?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, look, this won't impact normal elections at all. This is, the Parliament will still be elected by the Australian people, it doesn't impact that. It doesn't impact government either, that's why I say it's a non-binding advisory committee. And the words that are there are really clear, as well. The great beauty of this proposal is that the third part, so the question, is in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of Australia. So, very clear, tick. There shall be a body called the Voice, as point one. Point two is, the Voice may make representations on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Then the third bit is an important bit as well, which says that the Parliament shall make laws about the functions, procedures, composition of the Voice. So, it will be up to the Parliament on an ongoing basis to make laws about how the Voice functions. And that's important, so it won't overturn any of those processes. So, from state to state, Indigenous people themselves, if a Yes vote is successful, I'll convene a meeting, a committee, made up with joint chairs from the Labor Party and from the Coalition. They'll work through the legislation, which will determine the exact way that the composition of the Voice operates. Just like we have a Constitutional provision allowing for taxation, but we don't put in the Constitution that income tax will be this level or the company tax will be this level. It's the principle which is there. And then the Parliament will determine the processes of how the Voice operates, but it won't interfere with our normal functioning of our great democracy.
MATT: All right, well, thank you for coming in and answering all those questions.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.
MATT: There's a lot to get through. Don't forget to vote next week. Anthony Albanese –
PRIME MINISTER: Or you can vote today!
MATT: That's true.
ABBY: Good point.
STAV: Get involved!VOICEOVER: I present the Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister.
MATT, HOST: Yeah, he's in the studio with us this morning.
ABBY, HOST: Yeah, and just before we get to some questions that you might have, 13 10 60 about the Voice, we were just talking off air about a visit to The Lodge.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. You’re in.
ABBY: Thank you so much.
MATT: You invited us, you were asking us to come.
PRIME MINISTER: It'd be fun.
MATT: Yeah, agree.
ABBY: Do we get a party? Has anyone had a party at The Lodge?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
MATT: No?
STAV, HOST: Not even a housewarming party when you moved in?
PRIME MINISTER: You don't get a party, it's a very serious place.
STAV: Fair enough.
PRIME MINISTER: It's not that serious, I've got a vinyl player there.
ABBY: Okay.
MATT: That's good.
STAV: He's a DJ. You can spin some decks, mate.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, absolutely.
MATT: We'll go back, do a little.
PRIME MINISTER: It’s on.
MATT: Of course, the Voice vote is next weekend. It's going to be a big moment in history for our country. There's a lot of information from Yes camp, No camp, all over the place. What we thought while we've got you here is give our listeners an opportunity, just to ask you straight up any questions they have.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
MATT: So, 13 10 60. Cam, you are on with the Prime Minister.
CALLER: Hi, hi, how are you? How are you going Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Cam, I'm well.
MATT: Hang there, buddy. You’ve got a bad line, we’ll come back to you Cam.
STAV: See if we can fix that up.
MATT: We'll go to Debbie in Mango Hill. Debbie, you're on with the PM. What's your question?
CALLER: I just want to know, how is the Voice going to change the aggression that Indigenous people have against us, like Invasion Day and all this type of stuff? How's the Voice going to change all this, unless we all work together?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. Well, the idea of this is to work together, to bring the country together. And Indigenous Australians, of course, gathered at Uluru in 2017 about what form recognition should take. And what they said was that, yeah, we want to be recognised, but we want to be recognised with something that's lasting. And that's where the whole idea of the Voice has come from. It's been developed over a decade. The idea that you'll have a body made up of Indigenous Australians, selected by Indigenous Australians, to make representations to the Federal Government and the Parliament about issues that affect Indigenous Australians. So, it will have the power of its ideas. If it comes up with a good idea, then governments should adopt it. And it will provide that voice. When we listen to people who are directly affected by an issue, we get better outcomes. And we know with Indigenous communities, there are great success stories. Some of the community health programs, Indigenous Rangers, Justice Reinvestment, they all have something in common. They've got that sense of ownership from Indigenous people. And there's something else, as well, that the Voice will do, it will give people responsibility for outcomes, as well. And I'm very confident that we'll get better results.
ABBY: It is true that anger does come from people being unheard?
PRIME MINISTER: It does. And the frustration is there and it's time to listen.
MATT: All right, let's see how Cam's line's going now. Cam, you're back on with the PM. Have a shot.
CALLER: Hi, how are you going?
MATT: Good.
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Cam.
CALLER: Hi. Thanks for taking the time to answer a question I have. I really appreciate it. I just wanted to say that most Australians are very kind. They will support any idea that is going to benefit Australian people. So, most people are, times are very tight financially for most people. They're just sort of typically struggling to get by with their families and work and they will support anything. But I think, a lot of Australians have one question and that would be, what is this going to cost me financially? Is this going to be a negative for me in some way? That's all the only question most people would have. Other than that, people would support anything that's going to benefit Aussies.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, thanks, Cam. That's a good question, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. This will actually save money. Because what will happen is that instead of people in Canberra, bureaucrats with the best of intentions, making decisions on behalf of Indigenous Australians, without listening to them, what you'll get if we listen to people, is more efficiency. You'll get the dollars going to where they should go, you'll get the spending made much more efficiently. And that's why this is actually a pretty fiscally conservative position, if I can put it that way, because there's no cost to this, there's no financial cost. I'm convinced that it will save money. There's been a lot of money, billions of dollars have been spent on Indigenous affairs and yet we're only meeting, or on target to meet, four out of the 19 targets. We have an eight-year life expectancy gap. There are gaps in health and education and housing. We need to do better. And if we listen to people, we will do better. The other thing is the cost. This is about helping a group of Australians, three per cent of Australians, it won't have a direct impact at all on non-Indigenous Australians directly, but it will help them. It's a bit like, I reckon, marriage equality. Before the campaign, there was talk of, oh, well, this will ruin existing straight marriages, this will have all this impact. People will be marrying bridges and there was all this nonsense out there. The truth is, you know what it did? It just gave a minority of people, in this case, same sex couples, some rights they didn't have before, without taking anything away. And that's what this is. All upside, no downside. All gain, nothing to lose here from anyone.
MATT: There is a message going around that, and it's obviously by the No campaign, saying that there will be people who lose their houses because land will get claimed and all of a sudden people will have assets that get taken away from them. What would you say to that message?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two things. One, that it's nonsense, complete nonsense and made up. But secondly, also, to me, some of the arguments that have come up from the No campaign just highlight that there isn't a strong case to vote No. That's why things are being made up in this campaign. If there was a legitimate case, and some people might put the thing of, you should never change the Constitution. Okay, if that's your view, that's a legitimate reason to not vote Yes, if things should stay the same as they were in 1901. But the nonsense which is out there, the misinformation, which is why as well, the main slogan of the No campaign, which basically encourages people to not get informed, is, I think, exposes the lack of argument against this. This should not be a political issue. And that's why people like Julian Leeser, the person appointed by Peter Dutton as the Liberal Party's Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister, is out there strongly campaigning for Yes. As are people from all of the crossbenches and people from across the political spectrum. This should be, and I believe will be, a moment of national unity. Remember when the Apology to Stolen Generations happened? Peter Dutton walked out of that, but Brendan Nelson showed leadership at that time, as the Liberal Party leader. And it just brought the country together. We felt better about ourselves once that happened.
MATT: We've got time for one more question and I don't want to be the one to wrap you up, because you're way above me when it comes to power, but Lisa?
PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Lisa.
CALLER: Good morning.
MATT: Hi.
CALLER: How are you? Good morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.
ABBY: What's your question, Lisa?
CALLER: I just have a question, you just mentioned with the first caller the process that Indigenous people will be voting for their representation in the Voice. So, it's a two part question. How would those Indigenous people be selected, given that there are people that are one per cent Indigenous, via DNA testing? And two, do they get two votes? Do they vote in that process and then still vote in the normal process, for want of a better word?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, look, this won't impact normal elections at all. This is, the Parliament will still be elected by the Australian people, it doesn't impact that. It doesn't impact government either, that's why I say it's a non-binding advisory committee. And the words that are there are really clear, as well. The great beauty of this proposal is that the third part, so the question, is in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of Australia. So, very clear, tick. There shall be a body called the Voice, as point one. Point two is, the Voice may make representations on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Then the third bit is an important bit as well, which says that the Parliament shall make laws about the functions, procedures, composition of the Voice. So, it will be up to the Parliament on an ongoing basis to make laws about how the Voice functions. And that's important, so it won't overturn any of those processes. So, from state to state, Indigenous people themselves, if a Yes vote is successful, I'll convene a meeting, a committee, made up with joint chairs from the Labor Party and from the Coalition. They'll work through the legislation, which will determine the exact way that the composition of the Voice operates. Just like we have a Constitutional provision allowing for taxation, but we don't put in the Constitution that income tax will be this level or the company tax will be this level. It's the principle which is there. And then the Parliament will determine the processes of how the Voice operates, but it won't interfere with our normal functioning of our great democracy.
MATT: All right, well, thank you for coming in and answering all those questions.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.
MATT: There's a lot to get through. Don't forget to vote next week. Anthony Albanese –
PRIME MINISTER: Or you can vote today!
MATT: That's true.
ABBY: Good point.
STAV: Get involved!