Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has attacked the planned parliamentary process for deciding the detail of the Voice to Parliament, should Saturday's referendum be successful, as a "stacked arrangement" that is "skewed in the government's favour."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
As campaigning on the Voice intensified across the country and more 3 million votes cast at early voting centres, Mr Dutton opened a fresh line of attack against the proposal, claiming the Coalition's minority position in Parliament meant that "nothing we say [on the structure of the Voice] has a chance of getting up".
"This bipartisan sort of kumbaya moment that the Prime Minister speaks of ... is actually skewed in the government's favour," the Liberal leader said while campaigning in Adelaide.
"If that committee is to be formed as a result of the 'yes' vote being successful, if that's what happens on Saturday, will there be equal numbers?
"Not this ... stacked arrangement which includes the Labor Party and the green teals and Greens. They all vote as a bloc."
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Mr Dutton of "politicising everything" and said he would pursue a bipartisan process if the voice proposal is approved.
"If there is a 'yes' vote, what I'll do is convene a joint parliamentary committee jointly chaired by someone from the Labor Party, someone from the Coalition, to develop and finalise the legislation that is required to establish a Voice," he said.
"I note the Liberal Party say that they want to legislate for a Voice. They also say that if this referendum is defeated, what they want to do - if Peter Dutton ever becomes prime minister - is have another referendum.
"We can get this done. We can get this done in coming days."
Earlier, during a visit to Port Lincoln, the Prime Minister said the Voice proposal was about recognising first Australians in the constitution and establishing a "non-binding advisory committee so that we can listen to Indigenous Australians about matters that affect them".
"It ... doesn't change the way that decisions are made by Parliament and the government. All it asks for is that people will be listened to. Not too much to ask," Mr Albanese said.
But Mr Dutton said the process followed by the government in developing the referendum legislation had been deeply partisan.
"Keith Wolahan and our other colleagues were on that committee [that framed the legislation] but not one, not one, recommendation from the political party was picked up by the prime minister," he said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, however, that it was Mr Dutton who had politicised the process.
Senator Wong said successive Coalition governments had supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart "until Peter Dutton decided to [change that] because he saw political advantage".
READ MORE:
During a visit to Uluru on Tuesday, Mr Albanese compared concerns and misinformation around the Voice to that seen around the apology to the Stolen Generations.
"There was a lot of concern, and a lot of, frankly, fake news about what the consequences of it would be. There would be all these negative consequences. None of them were realised," he told the ABC.
"We know that it was an uplifting moment, particularly, I think, for young Australians at that time.
"Brendan Nelson gave a fine speech as Liberal leader. It is unfortunate that Peter Dutton walked out on that speech. He found the consequences that he was talking about, though, weren't realised. He has apologised for that but then he is committing exactly the same actions in being negative, saying 'no' on this occasion."
Asked if after the referendum the government would order a review of laws that govern the processes, Mr Albanese said that would "be a matter for the [joint standing committee on electoral matters]".
"[The committee] will normally look at electoral processes when they occur at the federal level," he said.
The no camp has campaigned hard on the claim that the Voice proposal is divisive and has urged those unsure about the idea to vote it down.
Recent polling suggests the messages are resonating with a significant proportion of the population. Many surveys show the no vote well ahead in most states and at the national level.
More than 3 million votes have already been lodged, a number Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers has cautiously acknowledged as being in record territory.
"We are ... I'm always cautious though because there are more people on the roll now than there had ever been previously," he told the ABC.
At the same time, Mr Rogers said the AEC was also seeing an increase conspiracy theories and "virulent threats" against staff online, something he added has been shifting into the real world.
"It's almost like conspiracy theory bingo. You can tick them off as they come, everything from the multiple voting to we're distributing the wrong material," he said.
"Referenda, more broadly, unleash passions that don't necessarily exist at election time. At elections, people vote for a party. If they lose, they think well, three years later, we'll have another go.
"For a referendum, it's different. That result can be a generational result, and people take it very seriously."