Category Archives: Indigenous voice to parliament

Greens refer PwC to Nacc; yes campaign holds voice events across the country – as it happened

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Myroshnychenko says Ukraine war can’t get any worse

On the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his wagner mercenary group, Myroshnychenko says he is reluctant to get into speculation about “palace intrigue” in Russia.

We haven’t seen any major impact in the battlefield as the mutiny was unfolding, Russians sent on shelling Ukrainian cities sending missiles, heavy battlefields on the frontlines. Definitely the reputation of Vladimir Putin was dented. His leadership was challenged. And in a country like Russia is really extraordinary to see it happening. Putin is running the country as a thug so pretty much a gangster country and all these thugs and somebody revolts all of a sudden, this is already kind of bizarre.

I don’t think anything can be worse, right? Can it get any worse? Look, Russians have deployed 150,000 people in Ukraine – occupied 20% of the land. They just shell us on a continuous basis, killing and raping and murdering people. Can it get any worse? I don’t think so.

I think any support for Ukraine will be very good investment into the restoration of the rules-base international system.

Something which is so important for every Pacific nation because if you can allow a bigger power to curse a smaller power – and you don’t fight back and you let that happen, that sends a wrong signal especially to your neighbours, to countries that depend so much on your support to be sovereign and to make their own decisions and not to be influence bid bigger powers.

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‘A gamechanger’: yes campaign launches nationwide voice events as momentum builds ahead of Naidoc Week

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Director of Yes23 says support is growing within communities and the movement has the right message to win referendum

Two dozen major referendum events nationwide this weekend will be a “gamechanger” for the voice, says the director of Yes23, who is confident support will keep rising once grassroots campaigning fully activates in coming weeks.

After a week campaigning across the Kimberley region, Dean Parkin said the voice was crucial to help remote Indigenous communities that were being ignored. He maintained the campaign had the right message and strategy to win the referendum.

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Bill Shorten has ‘no problem’ with public servants displaying support for Indigenous voice at work

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Comments come after poster on voice was removed from an NDIS commission office over concerns it compromised impartiality

The federal minister for government services, Bill Shorten, has backed public servants displaying their support for the Indigenous voice referendum at work, after a stoush between unions and the NDIS commission over an information flier posted in an office.

Guardian Australia understands a Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) poster featuring referendum information, bearing a “unions for yes” emblem, was removed from a Melbourne NDIS commission office last week, upsetting the union.

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PM launches byelection campaign – as it happened

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Birmingham tells RN he is ‘conflicted’ over voice to parliament

Shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, avoids disclosing what he will vote in the voice referendum, dodging ABC RN’s Patricia Karvelas’ questions.

Do you support the voice?

I’ve been clear that I don’t intend to actively campaign in the referendum.

Why aren’t you taking a position? I mean, you’re making it clear that you want it to be private. If it’s private, that means you are actually sitting on the fence.

Patricia, I think you can hear from my answer there, that I am, in some ways conflicted and think this is a very difficult situation the country has been put in, that we have got a question before a proposed change.

We’re getting a situation where the government is not really directly responding to Ukraine’s requests for the Hawkei vehicles, or the Abrams tanks, nor the D mining equipment they’ve asked for.

[The Albanese government’s] contribution in terms of humanitarian assistance is simply $10m compared with the $65m that had been provided previously. So this is a concern …

Status as the leading non-Nato contributor to Ukraine has slipped away and the type of support being offered now doesn’t seem to be either meeting Ukraine’s requests, providing the modern equipment that they want or need, nor the type of scale that would seem to keep Australia commensurate support of our other parts.

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Media must not confuse voters about Indigenous support for voice, Anthony Albanese says

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PM reels off names of prominent yes campaigners backing ‘a moment of national unity’

Anthony Albanese has suggested the media has a “responsibility” not to confuse voters about support for the voice among First Nations people, arguing that Indigenous critics are outnumbered by supporters.

The prime minister told ABC Coffs Coast radio that Indigenous leaders have been campaigning for the voice “for a long period of time” as their preferred model of constitutional recognition.

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Deputy PM says Russia uprising ‘a crack in the edifice’ – as it happened

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O’Neil defends decision to keep Nauru offshore processing open

Home affairs and cyber security minister Clare O’Neil was asked about why the offshore processing site on Nauru is being kept open if the last refugee has been removed on ABC RN this morning.

It is an unmitigated good thing for the country that we’ve transitioned the last asylum seeker off Nauru. This has been a festering sore in Australian politics for more than a decade. And I’m very pleased that our government has taken that approach of making sure that we bring that to a close.

However, it is very important that we maintain our strength on the borders. Offshore processing is a part of our overall approach and that is why Nauru will remain open and on standby.

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Anthony Albanese says government needs to ‘make it clear’ what is at stake in voice referendum

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Prime minister says ‘we have got to explain what it is about’ as he shrugs off polls showing slipping support

Anthony Albanese has shrugged off polling results showing slipping support for the Indigenous voice, but concedes the government needs to “make it clear” what is at stake in the referendum as the campaign begins.

The prime minister is confident of a yes vote in the referendum, expected in October, as he flags the Labor party will swing in behind the official Yes23 campaign to bolster its work.

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Indigenous voice yes campaign to ‘take the high ground’ with funding for thousands of local events

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Public messaging of referendum supporters hopes to offer antidote to ‘fear and misinformation’, yes campaigners say

The yes campaign for the referendum will offer grants of up to $15,000 for a blitz of community functions supporting the Indigenous voice, in a bid to support thousands of events nationwide backing the change.

Other big headline events and an advertising campaign are in the works for the yes campaigners, who will begin ramping up their public messaging from next week in the long run-up to the vote on an Indigenous voice to parliament, widely anticipated to be held in October this year.

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Albanese calls on voters to ‘rise to the occasion’ on Indigenous voice and ridicules opposition claims

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Peter Dutton warns referendum will leave Australians ‘split down the middle’ and repeats call for symbolic recognition

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has urged Australians to “rise to the occasion” of the referendum, saying he wants to discuss with the opposition how the Indigenous voice could work in the event of a successful vote.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, claims the referendum will leave Australia “split down the middle”, again calling for the government to scrap the voice and instead pursue symbolic constitutional recognition of Indigenous people.

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Anthony Albanese says voice will help ensure taxpayer dollars are ‘spent better and more efficiently’

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The PM says a yes vote should lead to more cost-effective health, education and housing programs for Indigenous people

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says a yes vote for the Indigenous voice to parliament will save money by helping to design more cost-effective programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Indigenous leaders from the Northern Territory came to Canberra on Thursday to urge Australians to listen to their “heart” to support the referendum, saying the voice would help address health, education and housing issues in their communities.

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Greens and Coalition unite to refer bill to its own inquiry

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Albanese takes swipes at the Greens

The Midwinter Ball was held overnight. It seems to have been a fairly staid affair but I am still ferreting out info.

Consulting firm PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information to help its clients avoid tax and engaged in a “deliberate cover-up” over many years, a Senate committee has found.

PwC should be “open and honest” by promptly publishing the names and details of its partners and staff involved, the finance and public administration committee has recommended.

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Politicians dress up for Canberra’s night of nights – as it happened

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Lambie agrees with calls to have Iraq invasion decision referred to ICC

Jacqui Lambie says she also agrees with calls to have the leaders of the “coalition of the willing” – the leaders of the UK, the US and Australia when the decision was made to invade Iraq – also referred to the international criminal court. Beyond that, she says Australia has never really examined its role in that decision.

I absolutely agree with and when you go in to Iraq, and you say you have a reason to do that … when you work out three years later that the reason that they were using was not there at all, then we have a massive problem here and you continue to stay in a war that you probably should never have been involved in the first place because you didn’t have that information correct.

Then you have a problem. And quite frankly, politicians when they send us into war, they should be accountable as well.

If Australia – and both governments we’ve seen it from the Liberal party and now from the Labor party – if they’re not prepared to go in and look at senior command … I’m going to force them to.

Because you are not going to chuck all these diggers under the bus and not [front] up.

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Australia politics live: Don Farrell warns delaying housing bill could lead to double dissolution election

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Chalmers to herald record job growth

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will no doubt take a dixer on this today – the Albanese government has “had the strongest job growth in the first year of any new government on record”.

The number of Australians with a job is now more than 14 million for the very first time.

Australia’s participation rate is 66.9% – the highest on record, primarily driven by record high participation for women (62.7%).

The share of women in work is at a record high – with the employment to population ration for women at 60.5%.

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Historic Indigenous voice referendum bill passes parliament ahead of public vote

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Anthony Albanese calls on Australians to ‘make history’ by supporting Indigenous consultation body

A bill to alter the constitution and enable the Indigenous voice has passed the federal parliament ahead of Australia’s first referendum in 24 years, to be held later in 2023.

The Senate passed the bill on Monday 52 votes to 19, confirming the wording of the constitutional change to be put to the Australian people. The draft legislation passed the lower house last month.

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Indigenous voice no campaign using Lisa Wilkinson comments about Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to fundraise

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Coalition senator emailed supporters asking if they heard about the attack on her from the ‘woke celebrity and voice activist’

The no campaign for the Indigenous voice referendum is fundraising off the back of comments made by The Project host Lisa Wilkinson about the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, in a leaked recording of conversations with Brittany Higgins.

It comes as anti-voice organisations gear up for the referendum campaign to officially begin, with one leading conservative lobby group seeking donations to reach “millions” of homes with phone calls and direct mail.

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Senator removed from party room – as it happened

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Liberal senator David Van is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate yesterday.

Thorpe withdrew the remarks to comply with the Senate’s standing orders but said she would be making a statement on the issue today.

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Don’t panic? How the Indigenous voice to parliament is faring four months out

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With some signs of poll fatigue, the yes campaign will have to work hard and hope an appeal to the heart is enough to get it over the line

Polls showing a decline in support for an Indigenous voice to parliament have prompted a lot of public soul searching this week among observers. There have variously been calls for the vote to be postponed, for the question to be amended, for the yes campaign to step it up.

Amazing what anxiety a handful of numbers can invoke.

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Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for body negotiating treaty

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First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiations with Andrews government later this year

Almost every Victorian Indigenous prisoner has enrolled to vote for the body that will negotiate the state’s nation-first treaty negotiations.

The second iteration of the First Peoples’ Assembly will begin negotiating a landmark statewide treaty with the Andrews government later this year, once its election results are announced in the coming days.

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Australia politics live: Labor blocks Zoe Daniel’s push to ban gambling ads but promises ‘comprehensive’ response to issue

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Tony Burke says Labor committed to strong consumer protections regarding online gambling and does not oppose principle behind independent’s bill

‘A sackable offence’

Here is how that “conversation” played out.

What we want understand now is whether this Labor minister was in fact complicit in politicising this event. That is unforgivable.

Not only that, misleading parliament is a serious offence, a sackable offence and standing by this minister, if she has misled parliament, has consequences.

You were in the Senate yesterday when Katy went through what happened and what I’d like to understand from you is how is it the two years after this event you are trying to make this somehow the problem of the current government when we were not even in government, not four years after this event occurred.

The real issue is the fact that a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in our workplace and I would really like to focus on that is the main issue here because that is the main issue here, because that is the subject that matters.

What we are finding out now is what the minister knew and why her testimony to the Senate as different from that. There’s a lot of considerations here, I know people are talking about how this information came into the media and certainly the media has a lot of considerations to make.

There has to be respect for the parliament and the court and the law but that information is now out there and journalists need to make decisions about whether it is in the public interest.

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Australians’ support for Indigenous voice steady with 60% in favour, Essential poll finds

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Guardian Essential poll finds high level of backing for voice to parliament, despite other polls showing support flagging

Public support for the Indigenous voice to parliament is holding steady and remains high, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows, in contrast with other recent polls suggesting that support is sliding.

The poll of 1,123 voters, published on Tuesday, found 60% of respondents were in favour of the voice, up one point on the previous survey, while 40% were opposed to it.

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