THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP

MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

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E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
PARRAMATTA
THURSDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2023

SUBJECTS: VOICE TO PARLIAMENT REFERENDUM.

ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, it’s wonderful to welcome Tanya and Noel and Barry to Parramatta and be here with so many fantastic Yes campaign supporters at Parramatta station. I want to welcome Tanya Plibersek, who was done so much to help us protect Parramatta‘s natural environment, particularly our heritage here. I want to welcome Noel Pearson, who has been doing an incredible job on the Yes campaign. And anybody who saw Noel Pearson’s speech at the Press Club could not help but be moved by the clarity, simplicity and warmth of his message. Noel, you’ve been to Parramatta, I think this might be your fifth time in the last few weeks, and you also get a fantastic reception and your message resonates so strongly, particularly with the multicultural communities here in Parramatta. And it’s wonderful to have Barry O’Farrell here as well. Barry, you were here last night. I think this might be your fourth or fifth visit to Parramatta in the last few weeks for the Yes campaign. Barry, of course, as well as being a former Premier of New South Wales is extremely popular in Parramatta partly because of his distinguished service to Australia as the High Commissioner to India and the wonderful work he’s done to build Australia’s relationship with India over the past several years.

The mood this morning for the Yes campaign has been incredibly positive – so many people recognising the importance of saying yes to having a place for First Nations people in our constitution and making sure that when we make policy about Indigenous people we don’t do it without them. Thanks very much, and I’ll hand over to Noel.

NOEL PEARSON: Thank you, Andrew. I’m so very pleased to be here with a bipartisan group of leaders. Andrew’s been absolutely tireless in Parramatta and Western Sydney in promoting the cause for Yes. And Tanya and I have been together many times during this campaign. Barry’s presence here today is testament that this is not a Labor versus Liberal issue; this is an Australian issue. It’s not a federal election we’re going into in two weeks’ time; we are going into a referendum to vote for the future of our country.

Let’s rise above the politics of federal elections and instead understand this is a chance for all of us to come together and vote for something good for the country. There’s been a huge focus, so much passion and anxiety in the Australians I’ve met all across the countryside that we close the gap on disadvantage, that we include Indigenous people in the prosperity and opportunity of Australia. We can do it. We can solve these problems. We can close the gap on disadvantage. A vote for Yes will take us to that. It will close the gap on disadvantage in the long run. It will enable that to happen, whereas a vote for No will take us backwards. It won’t just be a continuation of status quo; I think that it will be a deterioration.

We now have the opportunity to really step forward. Yes is forward, No is backward. No is to retain the bitterness, failure and heartbreak of the past. We can’t be happy with a life expectancy gap of 10 years on average, and in remote communities it is 20 years. You go to remote communities in Australia the gap is actually much wider. In my region in Cape York Peninsula people are dying on average around fifty years of age. We can close that gap.

So whilst I’m really pleased the conversation is about disadvantage and closing the gap, I also want to look forward to the solutions. You know, we’re not just here to talk about the problems; we’re here to talk about the solutions for the future. And a Yes vote is the starting point for those solutions.

So I urge all Australians to look forward, eyes on the prize. We can do this. And I want your awareness and concern and care for the situation facing my people to turn into a hope that we can get on top of this. We’ve got solutions. The Yes campaign is all about a better future for Indigenous people.

BARRY O’FARRELL: Look, it’s terrific to be in Parramatta informing people about the arguments in favour of the Yes campaign. Because ultimately, as Noel said, this is a decision that will be made by individuals voting on the 14th of October. And it’s been terrific for me this morning to again be with Libs, Nats, Labor Party people, Democrats who share the same view – that a vote for Yes on the 14th of October will recognise Aboriginal people [inaudible] opportunity for them to help bring forward the policies that affect them. It is going to lead to a more united and better Australia. It’s great to be part of it.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Thanks so much. And it’s wonderful to be here with Andrew with his huge team of volunteers and, of course, with Noel Pearson and Barry O’Farrell. We’ve got about two weeks to go, and as Noel has said, we’ve got to keep our eyes on the prize because we can win this. I’m here today and I’m voting Yes because I want to say yes to recognition. I want to say yes to reconciliation. I want to say yes to listening. I want to say yes to better results. I want to say yes to closing the gap.

So in these last few weeks I’m urging all Australians to get out and, of course, to vote yes, but also to talk to their friends, their neighbours, their work colleagues about why they are voting yes. It’s a real opportunity for Australia to move forward together. Together. Any questions?

JOURNALIST: One for Noel: the Prime Minister says that even if the referendum fails it will be worth it. Do you agree with that?

PEARSON: I think that we have every chance of winning this. The mood that I sense across the country does not allow me to contemplate what’s going to happen in the aftermath of a No vote. I’m entirely focused on October the 14th. We’re going to put in every effort over the next two weeks. It is very important that Australians understand that we need to look forward. A referendum takes such a long time to set up. It’s taken us 15 years to set up this opportunity to vote on this question. I don’t see us having an opportunity again in a long, long time. I cannot see a pathway for that.

This is our time. It’s fallen on us. We’re the generation. We’re the generation who have to make the call on this. And, really, history has fallen on us to say yes or no. I’m urging the Australian people to say yes, because to say no would be a return to ongoing conflict, ongoing debate, ongoing acrimony and ongoing despondency about us and our relationship. So here’s our chance. And I really think on the 14th of October we should seize the chance we have.

JOURNALIST: Is that comment from the PM an acknowledgement that the polls could be right – that this could not get up?

PEARSON: As they always say, the main poll is October the 14th. That’s the poll we’re looking for. We’ve always been the underdog in any campaigns for Indigenous rights and recognition. People said that this – that Mabo would be a calamitous outcome for the country and Indigenous people. That is not the way it’s happened over the last 30 years. Nobody’s lost their backyards. The country is all the better for the Mabo decision. And now we have the chance as the Australian people to really step up to the plate and say yes to move our country forward and include Indigenous people in our national constitution.

JOURNALIST: No campaigners, including opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Price –

PEARSON: Sorry, I missed that.

JOURNALIST: Jacinta Price and other No campaigners have criticised the new Yes campaign advertisement for claiming Australians haven’t listened to First Nations people in the last 250 years. Do you think it’s misleading?

PEARSON: The No campaign are exploding little controversy bombs all over the place… All I would ask the Australian people to do is focus on the actual words of the amendment. This is what they’re voting on. They’re not voting on manufactured controversies that the No campaign are constantly raising. And they’re outrageous. They’ll get more outrageous. There will be more of them in the next 14 days. But what I would ask the Australian people to do is simply focus on the words of the referendum and when voting on October the 14th, and you will see by focusing on those words that all of these controversies are just made up, they’re confected. They’re part of the campaign to destroy the referendum. But we need to be positive about this. Let’s not focus on the distractions. Let’s focus on the words we’re voting on. When you read the words and you understand what we’re doing, it’s very simple – the first line is, “In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples in Australia”.

JOURNALIST: Noel, some Indigenous leaders I’ve spoken with in Dubbo and Moree say that they want a little bit more clarity about how the people will be elected to be on the Voice. Would you be able to clear that up?

PEARSON: Okay. When we succeed in the referendum the parliament will then set up the process for answering those questions about the detail. Everybody will have their say. Parliament will listen to everybody. The Prime Minister committed that the committee in charge of that process will be bipartisan. There will be a member of the opposition co-chairing that process so everybody will get a chance to input on the detail. But the responsibility for the detail is actually in the provision. It says the parliament shall have power to make laws. It’s the parliament that’s going to decide these questions. And the Prime Minister’s commitment to the bipartisan commitment is an important committee that sends a signal to everyone it’s going to be a fair process. The opposition are going to have to be involved, as will the other parties in the parliament. It will be a fair process and we will design the best Voice to answer the concerns that everybody has.

JOURNALIST: Thank you, Noel. And one more for you, if that’s okay, given this is something that you’ve spoken about a lot: some of those people that I spoke to expressed concern that given they might have a strong relationship already with politicians or policy makers, they’re worried that their voice might be watered down by having to go through a national voice. Could you clear up the idea of the local voices and the Calma-Langton model and whether you think that that’s something that should be put forward.

PEARSON: I was in Aurukun in Cape York Peninsula earlier this week and we spoke about the Aurukun voice . They want to be able to deal with the government on the table, on the ground to talk about the issues affecting Aurukun. I expect there will be Wilcannia voice at the local level to talk about what we do with youths, education, health, housing. These are issues that local communities need to be able to deal with the government on, so the concept of local voices is absolutely [inaudible]. The Calma-Langton report that was commissioned by Ken Wyatt is correct about local voices. It’s very important to build that into the design of the Voice, because that’s where the action will happen. It will happen here in Parramatta. It will happen in Blacktown with Aboriginal communities that live here. It will happen in Redfern and La Perouse where there are people living in the centre, as it will happen in Yuendemu or [inaudible]. We need that local voice, and that’s the promise in front of us. We really can achieve a system where local voices for the first time will be heard by government so that their issues around closing the gap are addressed.

JOURNALIST: How do you see those local voices best communicating with a national voice. Is it, say a Wilcannia voice makes representations to the New South Wales representatives?

PEARSON: The whole thing will articulate to the top. So local people will be involved eventually in the selection of our national representatives. That’s all of the design detail that we’ll work through after the referendum. I can assure local Indigenous communities these issues have been canvassed in very great detail by Calma and Langton. We’ve got a very good basis in a report this thick, and I’m sure the parliamentary committee will work through that report and receive more input from around the country – from Indigenous people, from non-Indigenous people, the entire public will have access to this bipartisan committee so that we design the best voice we can.

JOURNALIST: Who will decide who will be on the Voice? Do you think that should be a separate vote for Indigenous Australians? How do you think that they should be chosen?

PEARSON: Calma-Langton said there should be flexibility, right? If you go to Arnhem Land they have their traditional structures for appointing leadership. In other places it is similar to voting for local council. It’s a democratic vote. So we want to allow enough flexibility for traditional communities that have traditional structures already. We respect that, and so the design will be flexible.

JOURNALIST: And, Tanya. Today the aviation Senate inquiry wants to understand the process the transport department and minister took in arriving at her decision to block Qatar Airways from more flights into Australia. Documents released so far have been almost entirely censored. Why the secrecy?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I’ll let the committee do its work. But I just want to pick up on the more flights argument. Qatar could have run more flights. They could have run flights to the Gold Coast, to Cairns, to Canberra, to Adelaide. They could have run bigger planes into capital cities like Sydney. They could have brought more passengers [inaudible].

END