Subjects: Recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution; the Prime Minister’s divisive Voice, Treaty, Truth proposal.
E&OE
NATALIE BARR:
Peter Dutton joins me now. Good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
`Morning, Nat.
NATALIE BARR:
Many people will be asking why you would spend another $450 million or so on another Referendum for something First Nations people aren’t actually asking for. What do you say to that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Nat, I think it’s the right thing and the respectful thing to do to simply acknowledge our history, and I think it’s the right thing to do for Indigenous Australians. I think it’s the wrong thing for our country to enshrine a Voice in the Constitution and we should be very clear about that. The Prime Minister has the opportunity now to go to the Referendum on the 14th of October this year with a moment of unification for our country instead of division. The dividing question is ‘do you support a Voice?’ – which is what he’s proposing. The unifying question is ‘do you support recognition in the Constitution?’, and I believe an overwhelming number of Australians support recognition, but don’t support the Voice. So, we don’t need a second Referendum if the Prime Minister listens to the Australian public, changes the question, and just has a simple recognition question put to the Australian people on October 14.
NATALIE BARR:
So, you want him to now change the question, do you? And you think that would get through and First Nations people would then be recognised in the Constitution?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, I do. Look, I think if we want a 1967 moment for our country – a unifying moment, which is, you know, the essence of what part of the ad is about – the question that should be put is do you do you support recognition in the Constitution?
I’ve been around Australia talking to hundreds, maybe thousands of Australians over the course of the last six months or so. People support recognition, but they don’t support the Voice and the numbers aren’t going to shift because the Prime Minister won’t provide the detail. When you deliberately keep the detail back, people become suspicious about what the Voice is and I don’t think that’s going to change. I don’t think the Prime Minister is going to change tack in that regard. So, the unifying moment for our country will be to ask whether you support recognition in the Constitution, but not the Voice? I think he’s got that within his power, and we would support that through the Parliament this week.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. So, let’s say we do that – which is important, and I think you’re right, a lot of people would support that – so then how do the lives of Indigenous people change? Twenty per cent live in poverty, nearly a third of the prison population is Indigenous, you know, you can stretch on with these awful statistics. How would people’s lives change? Because the whole Voice was brought up by a lot of Indigenous Australians. How would that change their lives?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Nat, it’s most acute in regional and remote areas. But if you go to some Indigenous communities, say in East Arnhem Land – where Yunupingu provided leadership there for many decades – they have a functioning society; 90 per cent attendance rate at school, they’ve got a building company, a logging company, they’ve got housing for their people, they keep the streets clean, and it’s a functioning society like you would see in any other regional town. You go to Alice Springs; kids are living in squalor, the attendance rates at school are through the floor. So, it’s about leadership in local communities, and when you speak to the women and the elders in a place like Alice Springs, they’re not interested in a Voice because they just see it as another layer of bureaucracy out of Canberra. They want, for example, accommodation, boarding houses at the local school so the kids can be fed, they can be housed, and they can live safely. That sort of practical assistance is listening to what they’re saying.
NATALIE BARR:
But Peter, I know what you mean, but we have spent billions and billions over many years and those ideas have come up before, you know, you’re not the first and they’re not the first. So, to change something, don’t we have to really draw a line in the sand and do what most Indigenous people are calling for?
PETER DUTTON:
Nat, I just think, look, there’s good intention on both sides of Parliament. There’s good intention across the nation to do well here. The trouble is that there’s an enormous amount – billions of dollars – tipped in at the top of the funnel, and the trouble is that the ticket is clipped all the way down until it’s a trickle to get to people in Alice Springs, which is why you see people living in squalor. It’s the leadership in communities that makes a difference. It’s making sure that the money isn’t held at the middle level and spent on things that aren’t relevant to people who are living their lives in camps and in situations that we just wouldn’t tolerate. So, I think there is an answer there, but the respectful thing is through recognition. The question’s whether the Voice changes any of that? I don’t believe it does. If I thought it did, if I thought it going to help those young kids lead a better life, or reduce the infant mortality rates, or reduce the youth crime rates, then I’d sign up to it in a heartbeat. But I just don’t believe it will, and I think that’s the view when you talk to people on the ground in these communities.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. Look, we thank you for your side this morning, Peter Dutton.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks, Nat.
NATALIE BARR:
We’ve got six more weeks of this. We will be having both sides on. Everyone’s views will be canvassed. Thank you very much.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you.
[ends]