Shorten calls for action over robodebt revelations
Speaking about the potential consequences for the former ministers involved in the Robodebt royal commission, Shorten says we’ll have to wait for the commission to report back any adverse findings – “but clearly something has to happen”.
Shorten says the decision will be up to “fiercely independent” commissioner Catherine Holmes and the counsel assisting. However, he believes action is necessary:
I think for some of the individuals, their behaviour was so egregiously negligent and disinterested, that you know, I think the evidence was damning already.
Furthermore, all governments not just Liberal but Labor and any other government needs to just learn some of the lessons about making sure that whatever program you have, is it lawful, is it legal and if you’re getting complaints, are you listening to them?
… We’ll find out soon enough the reports due on June the 30th.
But I think it has been shocking the discovery of the lack of attention to detail, the the willingness for people to get into groupthink and just go along with a strategy which was unlawful and then for years – rather than dealing with the issue – discredit the messengers.
Of the two ministers still in parliament, Stuart Robert and Scott Morrison, Shorten said:
They can’t think that this royal commission has shone them in a in a great light to be honest, but we’ll let others make that decision. We’ll see what happens with the findings.
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Police and emergency services located an aircraft shortly after 11am, believed to be the aircraft which was due to land at Lakeside.
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It comes after a frantic search for the passengers after a plane failed to arrive at an airpark west of Proserpine at 6.30pm on Sunday.
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The aircraft departed cattle station Natal Downs, south of Charters Towers on Sunday afternoon.
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Police said formal identification processes are still underway and no further information can be provided.
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Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Julian Leeser has now confirmed that the Liberal party will meet on Wednesday to decide its position on the voice to parliament.
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Speaking at the National Press Club, Leeser said the Liberals would meet to figure out their formal stance.
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The minister for government services, Bill Shorten, says the Liberal’s unexpected loss in the Aston byelection largely came down to the party leader Peter Dutton.
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Speaking to Sky News, Shorten isn’t shying away from criticising Dutton’s transition to opposition leader which he says hasn’t “cut the mustard”.
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I think image only goes skin deep. I think it’s a problem of substance. He still thinks he’s a Liberal cabinet minister in the Morrison government. There’s been no modesty or humility.
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They lost the last federal election. Yet Peter Dutton is pursuing every one of their policies. He hasn’t gotten the memo from the people of Australia that when you lose, you must look in the mirror and reevaluate your own policies.
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I mean, if you want someone to sit as opposition leader who can clench his jaw manfully, that’s Peter Dutton, but you need a bit more than one gear out of the bloke.
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I don’t know if he can make the transition to leading an opposition. And to do that, you’ve got to admit where your government’s got it wrong.
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He hasn’t even got up and said that the Robodebt royal commission is anything other than a witch hunt. The bloke has only got one gear, and that’s not good for Australian democracy.
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The minister for Indigenous affairs, Linda Burney, has this morning paid tribute to revered Yolŋu elder Yunupingu who has died aged 74.
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Speaking in Wollongong, Burney dedicated the referendum later this year to Yunupingu who believed deeply in the need for the voice.
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A great sadness has settled on Australia today. With the passing of Dr Yunupingu in his beloved Arnhem Land. He was Australian of the Year way back in 1978 and was one of the most significant leaders for two decades of First Nations people across this country.
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He was the clan leader of the Gumatj clan. A Yolŋu man. Very responsible for the Bark petition that now hangs in Parliament House. He fought with a passion for his people, for land, for identity, and he loved this country. He said he was the fire. And he believed very deeply in a referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in the Australian Constitution.
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It is hard to put into words what this loss means for this country. It is hard to imagine the next Garma Festival without Mr Yunupingu. It is hard to imagine going forward for many people. But his legacy is, his inspiration, will live on. And I want to dedicate what will be a successful referendum at the end of the year to Dr Yunupingu.
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About 85% of GPs nationwide have saved Medicare more than $350m from undercharging patients in consultations, a study suggests.
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Of the 2,760 GPs canvassed in the study, nearly 85% undercharged Medicare for at least one consultation within a sample of 40 consultations.
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Researchers from the University of Sydney estimated the undercharging by GPs has resulted in savings of $351.7m to Medicare in 2021-22 during about 90,000 consultations.
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The study published in the Australian Journal of General Practice also found GPs undercharged about 12% of total consultations and only overcharged 1.6% overall.
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Lead author Dr Christopher Harrison said:
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Our study has shown that GPs are more likely to err towards undercharging, than to overcharging.
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This contrasts with previous research and reports alleging widespread fraud related to GP billing of Medicare.
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General practice is in crisis. Allegations of fraud have been damaging to a workforce that is struggling to attract medical graduates to general practice.
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Harrison said a major reason why GPs undercharge, even for long consultations, was the fear of being audited.
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The paper analysed data from the Bettering the Evaluation And Care of Health program, a national study of GP clinical activity in Australia that ran from 1998 to 2016, concentrating on 2013-16. Each year, a different group of 1,000 GPs recorded information on paper about their consultation sessions for 100 consecutive consenting patients.
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The data was used to calculate the cost differences between the Medicare benefits schedule items charged and the MBS items that could have been charged based on the length of the consultation.
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The results from the analysis were projected to the total number of MBS items claimed in 2021-22 using the July 2022 rebates.
– AAP
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New Australian play Prime Facie has won big at the UK’s prestigious Olivier awards overnight, picking up best new play for playwright and former lawyer Suzie Miller (beating Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, among others); and best actor for Jodie Comer of Killing Eve, who starred in the one-woman show on the West End.
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The courtroom drama is about a ruthless barrister, Tessa, who specialises in defending men who are accused of sexual assault – until she is assaulted herself. In a four-star review in the Guardian, Arifa Akbar wrote:
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Prima Facie’s final messages are urgent in highlighting who our laws fail to protect. If they are delivered in hammer blows, there is power in hearing them spoken on a West End stage, and Comer manages to infuse breath-taking emotional drama in every last word.
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The play opens on Broadway next week starring Comer in every role, with another production premiering in Adelaide on 28 April, directed by David Mealor and starring Underbelly’s Caroline Craig.
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David Littleproud is asked to weigh in on NSW One Nation Leader Mark Latham’s homophobic tweet about independent MP Alex Greenwich, given that members of his own party had in the past “cozied up” to him and One Nation members.
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Littleproud says he has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to Latham:
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Where is Pauline Hanson on this? Why is he even in a political party any more? … If he was in my party and made that sort of remark, and it shouldn’t ever be said again, what he what he actually put up on Twitter.
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But where is the leadership of Pauline Hanson? All she’s done is gone to ground saying he won’t call me back. Well, take control of your party, call him in and show that you have some leadership.
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In fact, when some of my colleagues in the last parliament were giving medical advice on vaccines, I called them out publicly and wasn’t afraid to do that as the deputy leader.
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We all have a responsibility. We have a privileged position as being politicians and, if someone oversteps the mark, then they need to be hauled in and they need to give an explanation. If their explanation isn’t good enough, then you have to have the courage and conviction to move them on.
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Punters at Melbourne’s Crown Casino will have to take a 15-minute break every three hours and won’t be able to gamble for more than 36 hours in a single week under changes to the venue’s code of conduct.
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The state’s gaming minister, Melissa Horne, this morning announced the changes to the casino’s responsible gambling code of conduct, which she says will minimise gambling-related harm.
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It includes new limits on the length of time a person may gamble at the casino, with Crown required to enforce 15-minute breaks if a person has been gambling for three continuous hours.
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Anyone who has gambled for 12 hours in any 24-hour period will be required to take a break for 24 hours, with no person able to gamble for more than 36 hours in a single week. Crown staff will have powers to exclude them from the casino floor.
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The changes act on recommendation 11 of the royal commission into Crown’s suitability to hold a casino licence, which was completed two years ago. Horne says of the 33 recommendations from the royal commission, 29 have been either fully implemented or legislated and awaiting commencement in the coming months.
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Horne has also gazetted another direction to gambling advertisers to replace the former “gamble responsibly” taglines on advertisements with new evidence-based warnings that better challenge people to think about their gambling activity and minimise harm.
Some new taglines include: “Chances are, you’re about to lose,” and, “You win some. You lose more.” The taglines will also be accompanied by details of gambling support services to encourage people to seek help.
Horne said:
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This direction reflects my expectations that Crown must aim to be a global leader in the reduction of gambling harm – or lose their license.
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Crown is on track to implement mandatory pre-commitment in all electronic gaming machines by the end of this year. When combined with the strengthened code of conduct, the harm reduction protections will be world leading for a casino of this size.
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She says Crown has six months to update its code and any breaches may lead to disciplinary action by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission. The maximum penalty for a breach is up to $100m.
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Yunupingu’s daughter Binmila Yunupiŋu has issued the following statement behalf of the family:
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Today we mourn with deep love and great sadness the passing of our dearly loved father Yunupiŋu.
The holder of our sacred fire, the leader of our clan and the path-maker to our future.
The loss to our family and community is profound. We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done for us.
We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolŋu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always.
Yunupiŋu lived his entire life on his land, surrounded by the sound of bilma (clapsticks), yidaki (didgeridoo) and the manikay (sacred song) and dhulang (sacred designs) of our people. He was born on our land, he lived all his life on our land and he died on our land secure in the knowledge that his life’s work was secure.
He had friendship and loyalty to so many people, at all levels, from all places.
Our father was driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people’s place in the nation and the rightful place for Aboriginal people everywhere.
In leaving us, we know that Dad’s loss will be felt in many hearts and minds. We ask you to mourn his passing in your own way, but we as a family encourage you to rejoice in the gift of his life and leadership.
There will never be another like him.
In time we will announce the dates for bäpurru (ceremonies) that will see him returned to his land and to his fathers. These ceremonies will be held in North Eastern Arnhem Land.
We ask the media to respect our grieving space over the coming weeks as we put together ceremonial arrangements to honour Dad.
Instead of flowers, we invite those of you who were touched by Dad’s fire to share with us your personal recollections and memories of his life. This will lift our spirits.
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NSW will become the latest state to ban mobile phones during school hours. Premier Chris Minns told ABC News Breakfast the statistics back the measure, which will be introduced in the state’s public high schools:
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The statistics are in. We know that kids who are in schools who have a mobile-phone ban in place are getting better test results, there’s more social interaction at school, there’s more physical interaction at school.
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We’re seeing the principal of Davidson high school saying he’s seen a massive turnaround in behaviour – less bullying within his school – since he implemented a mobile-phone ban.
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In Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria – all of those states have implemented a ban, and I don’t want to see New South Wales kids fall behind.
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I know a lot of adults find it difficult to concentrate when a mobile phone is in front of them, so I don’t know why we expect children to have that kind of discipline.
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Australia’s first legal officer is bringing together the nation’s police ministers to urgently progress the national firearms register, AAP reports.
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Attorney general Mark Dreyfus will convene the roundtable today as the federal government works to expedite the development of the register after high-profile shootings.
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National cabinet ordered police ministers to report back by the middle of the year after the shooting of two police officers and a third person in Wieambilla, Queensland, in December.
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Dreyfus said Australia already had some of the world’s strongest gun laws but there was room for improvement:
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The Albanese government is committed to working closely with jurisdictions on this initiative, which is vital to preserve the safety of the community and police.
\n
A national firearms register will ensure police across all Australian jurisdictions have timely and accurate information to assess any firearms risk posed and protect the community from harm.
\n
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Prime minister Anthony Albanese said it was a necessary measure after state and territory leaders were briefed by Australia’s top spy about the rise of rightwing extremism and so-called “sovereign citizens”.
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Malcolm Turnbull is now speaking to ABC Radio about the Liberal party’s direction after the Aston byelection loss:
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[In Victoria] the party has gone backwards dramatically since I was overthrown as leader of the Liberal party.
\n
The problem is the party is now in a position where what had hitherto been the crown jewels, the safer seats, most of them are now in the hands of teals and now they’re losing mortgage-belt seats.
\n
Which is where we’re told by the rightwing press is where the Liberal party is going to be more valued if they swing to the right.
\n
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Turnbull is sceptical of what one of the two Liberals left representing metropolitan Melbourne, Jason Wood, told the program. Wood believes the party just needs to sell its leader Peter Dutton better.
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The former PM highlights that Dutton is being marketed, but by Labor:
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The idea of putting Peter Dutton on posters everywhere … Peter is on posters everywhere, but they’re Labor posters.
\n
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Turnbull says it’s clear the party has to move back to the centre “where the voters are.” However, he says he doesn’t know who an alternative Liberal leader could be.
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\n
I’m just making the point that to move to the centre would be very difficult for Dutton… You’ve got Dutton out there again on Insiders, essentially rubbishing the move to renewable energy and then raising the furphy of nuclear power.. this is all effectively culture war stuff.
\n
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Australian endurance rower Michelle Lee will arrive in Cairns this morning after 235 days at sea, AAP reports.
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The solo seafarer has traversed more than 14,000km on her journey to Queensland’s far north, rowing from the coast of Ensenada in Mexico.
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The months-long expedition has taken Lee through the paths of five hurricanes and four cyclones, including the devastating Cyclone Gabrielle. She said:
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My patience has been tried and tested, I’m ready to land. I’m just dreaming of stepping on land. I expect it will take me a week to become a socially acceptable human again.
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The mammoth feat is not the first for Lee, a 50-year-old massage therapist from Sydney’s north-west. In 2018 she became the first Australian woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
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The achievement led to her being named the 2019 National Geographic adventurer of the year.
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Throughout her journey, Lee has shared regular dispatches from her 7.7-metre carbon-fibre vessel, the Australian Maid. Updates detail the awe of rowing alongside schools of fish approaching the Great Barrier Reef, finding a handbag and wattle branch lost at sea, and a craving for a Devonshire tea with all the trimmings.
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Scones, fresh cream and a hot cup of tea are not far away for Lee, who is already planning her first few meals on land. She said:
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A stack of pancakes is going to be so amazing, as is a bunch of celery, some chopped capsicum and cucumber.
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The Australian Maid will carry Lee to the Cairns marina, where crowds are expected to welcome her home about 9am AEST.
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The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, will meet state and territory police ministers today to discuss the creation of a national firearms register.
National cabinet ordered police ministers to report back after the Wieambilla shooting that left two police officers and a civilian dead last December.
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This morning in Cairns, Australian endurance rower Michelle Lee will set foot on land for the first time after 235 days at sea. She hass traversed more than 14,000km on her solo journey from the coast of Ensenada in Mexico.
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Home prices nationally have gone up for the first time in 10 months, with high rents and migration helping turn values around.
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A report shows the rental crisis is only due to get worse because of a shortage in supply of new houses and units caused by costs and ongoing constraints in construction.
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The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation said banks increasing their interest rates relative to the Reserve Bank of Australia guidance had reduced the supply of dwellings.
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The Liberals continue to face the fallout of their unexpected loss in the weekend’s byelection in Aston. Opposition leader Peter Dutton yesterday accepted responsibility for the loss but said he had no plans to step down.
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Jason Wood, one of the two MPs left in metropolitan Melbourne, told ABC Radio this morning the party doesn’t need a change in leadership, just to sell Dutton better.
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The other, Keith Wolahan, the member for Menzies, told ABC Radio he believed the party was not offering solutions to the next generation and needed to do a better job of listening.
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Let’s get into it!
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Key events
Ok thanks for staying with me on this very legalistic speech from self-professed constitutional “Nerdus Maximus” Leeser. We’ve gotten to the end and Leeser has given us a summary of what he wants us to take away:
In conclusion, the constitutional amendment has now been presented to Parliament. There are three points of our compass that have been set.
First, we support local and regional voices and call for the funding of them in the budget.
Second, any national Voice must be deeply connected to the local and regional voices across Australia. And it would have been better had the national Voice been settled by reaching a bipartisan legislative consensus before we went to a referendum.
Third, the government should reconsider the wording of the alteration with a particular focus on the issues I’ve raised.
He ends with these words:
I wish the referendum was in a better place than it currently is. I wish it was heading to a 1967- style result, but it is not.
I wish the government was finding common ground and trust in Australians with all the facts. They are not. They are mucking it up.
My colleagues and I will keep working through the detail and try to get answers for the questions Australians are asking. W …The next generation deserve their Voice to be heard locally regionally and nationally. They deserve to be given as much opportunity as any other young Australians to thrive and prosper. This is the common ground we must find what all of us in public life must strive to deliver.
Leeser says his second issue with the constitutional amendment is about the form of constitutional recognition, and something in legal terms which is known as a “chapeau” (which means hat in French):
The third significant way that the government’s proposal recognises Indigenous Australians is through the preambular statement…. This is the set of words which reads in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first people of Australia and then the subsections sits underneath it.
This type of provision is sometimes called a “chapeau”, it’s a symbolic statement that sets out an incontrovertible fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of Australia.
Of course, everyone agrees with the statement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first people of Australia. The issue with the chapeau is that it can frame the interpretation of the provision that sits underneath it or in this context, called in aid to the interpretation of other provisions of the constitution and that raises questions.
For instance, the government proposes to confer constitutional function of making representations to the parliament and the executive. But by putting the provision under the chapeau, would we be implying representations can only be made if in some way they are in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as first peoples of Australia. In other words, in simple terms, what rights, obligations and privileges are being recognised as first peoples and what does the term imply at all?
Leeser goes on to explain his concern about the wording of the constitutional amendment, particularly the clause which mentions the voice will make presentations to the executive.
We already heard much debate about the inclusion of executive government. As a matter of principle, I believe the voice of the local, regional and national level should be engaging with the decision-makers, it should be contributing to policy development, warning of problems emerging engaging and thoughtful debate.
…But that’s not the issue here. Instead the question is – what are the implications of putting that clause in the constitution. The inclusion of that clause in the way to Stratford arrays three immediate issues.
First, who can the voice talk to? Which agencies are in which are out it comes to being part of the executive government?
Second, what can it talk about? What are matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians?
Third, what does it mean to make representations? Does it imply or leave room for any reciprocal constitutional obligation on parliament or the executive?
There are a few bold obsession to the contrary in the government’s explanatory materials but the issue has not been considered in any depth in any public forum.
It is not enough to say these questions will be addressed in legislation afterwards, you can’t out-legislate the constitution.
And I raise this issue is not only of a technical level but as a political one as well because this course will be the rallying point for the no campaign. Those who want the referendum to succeed, it puts the broader constitutional question at risk.
‘In the constitution every word and even capitals matter’
Leeser goes on to say as well as calling on the government to commit funding to the local and regional voices, the second area he wants to see get “back on track” is the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment:
The second area where we must get the voice back on track is in relation to the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment. In the constitution every word and even capitals matter. There is nothing inconsequential in the constitution.
The beauty and strength of our constitution is a mechanical sparse rulebook for our nation.
Symbolic statements made with the best intent leave room for clever lawyers to egg on activist judges to imply all sorts of things that were never intended.
This matters in the constitution because the high court is the arbiter, parliament cannot amend the judgement of the court, the courts interpretation is final.
Shadow attorney general calls for establishment of local and regional voices
Leeser says he wants to use this speech to discuss how to get the work on the voice “back on track and how we can give the idea of voice the best chance of success.”
First, the government should recommit to local and regional voices and provide funding for them in the next month’s budget. Local and regional has to be part of any model put forward, it’s been forgotten by the government, ignored even in the voice design principles released last week.
… I’m calling on the government to re-embrace the principles of the Calma Langton report, allocate funding in May’s budget to establish a local and regional voices, to start the policy and work on how to do this and we will back it in.
…Ideally the local and regional voices would have been rolled out and retested before any national voices, which was always our plan.
But we are where we are and I can’t undo the government passed my choices at this point. I want to be clear. To fail on local and regional voices is to deny voices to Indigenous Australians who live outside the major capitals and it will ultimately mean no change on the issues that matter.
‘Labor is messing this up’
Leeser goes on to criticise the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, for not having the “views of a person looking to reach consensus.”
The approach has discarded one of the guiding principles Pat Dodson and I wrote about in our report, namely, and I quote, balancing the urgency of a Voice against the likelihood of referendum success. We have seen that.
…What we witnessed in word, in deed, in action has been a repudiation of the collaborative spirit that is much the process since 2014.
Good process builds consensus. It helps narrow the issues for the debate in the referendum, but Labor is messing this up. I’m so sad about that. I look at where we are compared to where we should be on this journey and I lamented, I truly do.
In abandoning this approach of working to find common ground the government has been forsaking a vital ingredient that’s been instrumental in building public support and confidence as well as developing a model that has the best chance of moving the dial Indigenous health, education, housing, safety and economic advancement.
Leeser laments ‘top-down’ approach of Labor government on voice
Circling back to Leeser’s National Press Club address. The shadow attorney general says the process which he oversaw as part of the parliamentary select committee he co-chaired with Pat Dodson emphasised the importance of the regional bodies being implemented ahead of a national body. Leeser says the election of the Labor government with a plan to deliver the national body first has seen a “top down” approach implemented instead.
In accordance with the timetable set by the Calma-Langton report, the Morrison government committed to the rollout of the local and regional bodies in December 2021 and budgeted a $32m commitment to get the process started. Our plan was to build from the ground up. The plan was for local and regional voices first as recommended by Calma Langton.
Local and regional voices, then a national voice. Local and regional voices were the foundation. With the insight, life experience and moral authority moving up to Canberra rather than down from.
That was the process in place at election day last year. Had we been elected in May last year those bodies would have been well on their way.
… Unfortunately we lost the 2022 election and the way debate has been conducted has changed.
I recognise that the prime minister made a referendum on the national voice a signature policy and he mentioned it at every campaign stop and election night. There was nothing hidden in what he wanted to do.
But the deliberative process of the past decade engaging in debate, finding common ground, building coalitions, developing careful processes and working across the aisle has been abandoned. It is now top-down.
Man and woman found dead after light plane crash in Queensland
Eden Gillespie
A man and a woman have been found dead after a light plane crash in the Clarke Ranges in central Queensland.
Police and emergency services located an aircraft shortly after 11am, believed to be the aircraft which was due to land at Lakeside.
It comes after a frantic search for the passengers after a plane failed to arrive at an airpark west of Proserpine at 6.30pm on Sunday.
The aircraft departed cattle station Natal Downs, south of Charters Towers on Sunday afternoon.
Police said formal identification processes are still underway and no further information can be provided.
Liberal party to decide position on voice this Wednesday
Josh Butler
Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Julian Leeser has now confirmed that the Liberal party will meet on Wednesday to decide its position on the voice to parliament.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Leeser said the Liberals would meet to figure out their formal stance.
Leeser is emphasising there were different drafts to the voice conceived during the Abbott government:
Anne Twomey was the principal draughts-person for the voice body we put to Tony Abbott in 2014. Anne’s drafting showed one way a voice in the constitution could be achieved.
I signed up because the idea of the Pearson Twomey voice proposal was political influence, not judicial veto.
In my mind, those words in 2014 were never meant to be inviolable. We put out an idea to show how it could be done. It was an idea that needed to be tested not just by lawyers, academics and activists but in the broader political debate among the Australian people.
I saw it – not as the final word – but very much as Voice 1.0.
Since that time, Anne Twomey has devised at least two other versions of provisions to enable a Voice in the constitution to help contribute to the discussion on debate.
Voice 1.0 was not the only proposal. Warren Mundine and Tim Wilson were also developing an idea for local and regional voices. Their idea was an enhancement of the original idea. It was about empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in their communities right across the country.
Making a difference on the ground. It was for that reason with proposals for a local and regional Voice and national body, the Uluru Statement from the heart speaks of voice but not voice to parliament.
Leeser goes on:
At the time we were developing this idea Noel Pearson was trying to work out a way to encourage constitutional conservatives to work with Indigenous leaders to advance constitutional recognition that both could support.
We started to listen, to talk, to argue, to engage with each other, to try to find common ground.
Noel’s proposal was for a national voice to advise on policies and laws affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. I support the idea of the voice. As a Liberal I believe in the dignity of the individual. I believe that the policy is made when the People directly affected by the policy are consulted on that policy.
As a conservative I believe in the principle of subsidiarity. I believe through empowering people, building institutions and fitting responsibility and decision-making closer to people and local communities we are more likely to be successful in shifting the dial on Indigenous affairs.
The result of that engagement was a package of reforms that we put to prime minister Abbott. The Declaration of Recognition, the rewording of the racist power in the constitution to become an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander power, the removal of the spent race-based provision in section 25 of the constitution, and the voice proposal which Noel had devised and workshop over several months with Greg Craven, Anne Twomey, Damien Freeman and myself.
What piqued Leeser’s interest in constitutional recognition?
While the framers of the constitution were not perfect they got a lot of things right.
My interest in constitutional recognition was piqued in 2014 by the decision of the then prime minister Tony Abbott when he was elected to office to put constitutional recognition back on the agenda. I had concerns about his approach because I don’t believe the constitution is a place for symbolic and historic language.
I believe there are legal risks in using such language and so my friend Damien Freeman and I began the work on an ideal which we could recognise the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our national life without the need for a constitutional amendment.
The result was our idea of a non-constitutional Australian Declaration of Recognition. That document could be developed by Australians, affirmed at a national plebiscite, used in schools and parliaments across our civic, social and sporting life.
It could say so much more because it was not tied down by the risks of judicial interpretation.
Leeser speaks about his love for the constitution:
As a non-Indigenous Australian I’ve been on a journey seeking to understand Indigenous perspectives on the issue of constitutional recognition.
I came to the debate on constitutional recognition from a deep interest in constitutional history and constitutional law. In my maiden speech to parliament, I spoke to asking my parents for a copy of Australia’s constitution for my 10th birthday. Definitely earning me the moniker Nerdus Maximus.
I have been involved in constitutional battles past, most notably the 1998 constitutional convention and as a member of the official “no” case committee during the republic referendum.
We have a constitution that is the envy of the world. The constitution is the invisible pillar that holds our great national endeavour together. A document devoid of poetic or symbolic language, it is a practical, clear and concise enough document to fit in your pocket. And yet it was developed over a decade of negotiation and detailed debate and compromise. Our constitution has stood the test of time.
Leeser is reflecting on the change he has seen regarding attitudes towards First Nations people in his lifetime.
Like many Australians, I did not go up with Aboriginal people. I remember there being one or two Aboriginal people at school and some Aboriginal students at university but I did not get to know Aboriginal people or much about Aboriginal culture.
As a child of the 1980s and 1990s, at school we were taught about hunter gatherer societies but the public consciousness was not then what it is today.
When I go to schools and talk to people in my electorate, I know there is a hunger to know much more about the culture and traditions of Aboriginal people of our area, and that is a good thing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their culture is unique to our land. Their traditions, their stories are Australia’s edition and Australia’s stories and we should all do more to know or more of them.
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