MONDAY, 28 AUGUST 2023

SUBJECTS: Voice to Parliament; Reserve Bank.

​NATALIE BARR: The Prime Minister will this week announce the date Australians will head to the polls to vote on the Voice to Parliament. Anthony Albanese will meet his cabinet in Perth today to shore up support in WA, proclaiming the Voice is not dead in that state. It comes as the yes camp turns its focus to the 26 per cent of Aussie voters who remain undecided, hoping to win over at least 38 per cent of them to claim victory in the October referendum.

​For more I'm joined by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Morning to both of you.

​BARNABY JOYCE: Good morning.

​TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Good morning Nat.

​BARR: Tanya, how is the yes camp going to convince the undecided voters to win the referendum?

​MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well we're going to keep telling voters what we've been saying from the beginning. This is an idea that's come from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It's been a focus for many years and it's a simple proposition: our constitution should recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and we're going to do that by setting up a Voice. That's a committee that would give advice to the Parliament to make sure that we get stuff right, that we do better, that every dollar we spend is spent better for the benefit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

​BARR: So if you keep sending out the message you have been since the beginning, do you think that will work for you? We've got a group of company directors today who are campaigning for the yes side, and they say the yes side needs clearer and crisper messaging. So would you agree with that?

​MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it's important to be super simple about this. This is a committee that would give advice to the Parliament, so the Parliament makes better decisions when it's making decisions about health care or education or employment services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

​It won't have a veto, it won't get into all of the things that its opponents are saying, you know, nuclear submarines or parking tickets. It's a simple proposition. To change our constitution so we acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and we do it by setting up this committee that would give advice to the Parliament.

​BARR: Barnaby, we're the only former colony not to recognise their Indigenous people in their constitution, so is this an important one to get through?

​JOYCE: Well what we've seen is they've come out with this 31-page document, persuasive conversation document, otherwise known as a con job. Now when those heads of companies said well you need to be clearer, well how about you just table the legislation? But they won't do it. It's sneaky, it's a con job.

​Why have we got this mystery about when the date will be? I mean why couldn't you be clearer about that? And in their con job document they say that you've got to create a villain and the villain are mining companies, and guess where they're getting their money from? Mining companies.

​I wonder if the young professional women like being called ‘cheerleaders’. I mean the whole thing is just spin, it's sneaky, it's slippery, and that's why people don't have confidence in it. You know, if we know of issues that need to be dealt with and they do, why don't you start on them now? Why don't you start on them now? Why don't you tell us what you're going to do now?

​BARR: Okay, we'll certainly be watching this this week and the date should be announced on Thursday. Moving on. The Reserve Bank is under fire this morning after internal emails released under Freedom of Information revealed the RBA spent thousands of taxpayers' money on soirees. In October they had one with chicken skewers and shiraz. In November last year the Central Bank hosted a Board dinner in Hobart spending more than 13 grand on food and nearly $4,000 on alcohol just hours after delivering another rate rise. Tanya, should the RBA be spending so much money while everyone else is struggling to make ends meet?

​MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well of course any public institution has to be very careful with the way that it spends its money, and one of the changes that our Treasurer Jim Chalmers has proposed when it comes to the Reserve Bank is he's done a review and said that it should be more transparent, it should give regular press conferences, for example, to explain to the decisions that it's making to Australians.

​BARR: Barnaby, one staff member actually raised concerns about the spending and then for the Christmas party they said, "I know it sounds not attractive but Kmart and Big W do have some good Christmas decorations at a budget price". What do you think of their spending?

​JOYCE: I think there's a lot of questions being asked lately about spending and the person who formally interviewed the Defence Minister Richard Marles and the $3.7 million on VIPs, you know. Come on, come on, this is other people's money and you've got to be a little bit more transparent about it. The best way to do it is if you're completely happy with the money you're spending on lunch and the $4,000 grog bill and the $13,000 food bill, then make sure you just put it out into the papers the next day, "We had a dinner last night and this is how much we spent, I hope you're okay with that", and of course you wouldn't do that because you do have a concern. I've got no problems with them having lunches and dinners, we're not that stupid, they're a professional organisation. But I'm more worried about the $3.7 million on flights from Richard Marles which we cannot get to the bottom of, and he won't give us the details on.

​BARR: Okay, we thank you both. We'll see you next week.

​ENDS