Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud discusses the voice proposal
PARLIAMENT HOUSE GALLERY DOORSTOP - THE VOICE
JOURNALIST
David, what do you think of the polling in the Australian today showing that those who support the Voice are high income earners, university educated, the young and renters?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Yeah, look, it's a deeply personal decision for every Australian, I think every Australian is on that journey of exploring exactly what the Voice is, and what in fact, the Uluru Statement of the Heart is, it's actually not just the Voice. It's about truth and treaty as well. And so every Australian is exploring that. And unfortunately, this government hasn't been upfront with them. They won't even table the legislation and mechanics of how the Voice will operate. And if you're not prepared to bring the Australian people into your trust, why would they trust you? So I think it's important that we continue to prosecute our case, around, we don't need a bigger bureaucracy, we just need a better one.
If this was about Constitutional recognition, then we stand ready to be constructive with this government. But you can't conflate it, because we are repeating the mistakes in the past. The Voice is nothing new. We have done this before, and it has failed us before, we had a representative body. It was called ATSIC. And in particularly in rural and remote areas, that is where the disadvantage still is. And we don't want to repeat that mistake, but if the Prime Minister wants to walk down a path of Constitutional recognition, then we stand ready to take his hand.
JOURNALIST
And what did you think of Andrew Gee’s comments at the Garma Festival over the weekend?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Oh, look, Andrew Gee is entitled to his own views, but I think his own electorate would be very interested. And I think they're very interested if you poll them, to know that they're not in support of the Voice. This is an important decision for Australians to make. Politicians will make their determinations and make their statements, but I think we need to create an environment and The Nationals will create the environment where we allow the Australian people with the right tone and the right respect to make this decision by themselves without the argy-bargy and the petty comments.
And I don't intend to engage in that, and none of The Nationals have from the start. I'm proud of the way, the respect and tone that we set on this deeply personal decision for the Australian people. And that won't change.
JOURNALIST
So you don't agree with Andrew Gee that it's been weaponized politically?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
No, that's up to Andrew Gee. I mean, I'm not going to get into a slanging match with Andrew Gee if he wants to stoop to that. It's up to him. We're going to continue to treat this debate in a respectful way. And if Andrew wants to get into to calling names and making accusations, that's up to him. We'll continue to have a respectful conversation with the Australian people.
JOURNALIST
Do you believe there should be an investigation into allegations that the Defence Department was overbilled by KPMG?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, I mean, obviously, The Auditor General has an opportunity to also do that. So there are mechanisms in which we can undertake, even in a first pass. And I think that's important that the Australian people get confidence that Australian taxpayers dollars is being spent wisely. So if there's evidence that points towards that, then that should be aired. And then obviously the government may have to make a determination on that.
JOURNALIST
The Trade Minister is also hopeful that further sanctions will be removed off wine? What do you make of that?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, we welcome the move on barley. It was the former Coalition Government that put the WTO action in place. And we put WTO action on China with wine as well. And we hope that we don't need to continue to prosecute that. We hope that dialogue will continue and that we can get to a constructive outcome with wine. I think the barley decision gives us hope that that will be the trajectory for wine as well. And we'll be working constructively with the government and in dialogue myself with the Ambassador here, I think has played a very constructive role, in resetting our relationship and making sure that he also is sending the right messages about doing that, resetting trade.
JOURNALIST
Do The Nationals still support net zero by 2050?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
That's our policy. Our party room hasn't changed, in any way in shape or form on that. That's the policy that we took to the last election. What you’ve got to understand, this government is not trying to do it by 2050. They're trying to do it by 2030. And the consequences of that is what Australians are feeling in their electricity bills today. This is where I tried to take leadership when I became the leader, wrote to the Prime Minister and said, let's have a National Energy Summit. Let's discuss the opportunities and the technologies that are there, including nuclear. We didn't get to that as a former Coalition Government because the Liberals couldn't get themselves reconciled with it.
Peter Dutton has courageously led his party to join The Nationals on a conversation with nuclear energy. And so we are saying we can pause and we can plan properly.
And unfortunately, what's happening with this reckless race to 82 per cent renewables by 2030, renewables are losing their social licence. They're destroying remnant vegetation, they're destroying prime agricultural land, tearing away our food security, driving up your cost of food. So we're saying there is opportunity to use common sense. You do not have to achieve this by 2030, but Anthony Albanese has decided he wants to do it by 2030 with reckless policies that Australians are paying for. And that also has a perverse environmental outcome. The thing they're actually trying to protect, they're destroying in this reckless race, knocking down remnant veg habitat for rare species.
And taking away prime agricultural land is not a way to get to net zero.
