The prime minister has rallied Labor members to campaign “like you’ve never campaigned before” for the Voice, to flip opinion polls showing the referendum in peril, at the party’s national conference in Brisbane.
Anthony Albanese said the Voice to parliament referendum was a tough undertaking for his first-term government, but Labor was committed to taking on issues “not because they’re convenient, but out of conviction”.
Anthony Albanese revved up Labor supporters about the upcoming Voice referendum.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
A Yes vote, Albanese argued, would “resound across our continent” and make “Australia, the greatest country on earth, just that little bit greater”.
“No one pretends winning a referendum is straightforward ... We join the Labor Party to scale the peaks,” Albanese said.
“To change the country for the better in a way that outlasts all of us is a bold undertaking, but we take on these things because that has always been the Labor way. We take them on not because they’re convenient, but out of conviction.”
The Labor leader’s comments about the difficulty of winning the referendum came a day after he said in a TV interview that he would “do my best” to win, but that he knew at the outset that the referendum held some risk.
Albanese revved up his supporters about the upcoming referendum, to be held in October or November, on the final day of the Labor’s national conference, where the party shapes its policy manifesto.
The previously staunch left-winger cast himself as a consensus politician who would govern from the centre. Albanese departed the conference with his authority solidified having limited an outbreak of dissent over the AUKUS submarine deal, avoided left-wing demands to soften border protection policies, and killed off a divisive debate on Israel and recognition of a Palestinian state.
Labor unveiled a new slogan, “Working for Australia”, and delegates pushed progressive policies – from giving employees the “right to disconnect” to using corporate tax to build cheap houses – in part to counter the threat of the Greens on display at a protest outside the Brisbane convention centre.
Prominent Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, directing his comments at the Labor MPs inside the building behind him, said: “They’re locking in stage three tax cuts that will see every Labor politician in there get $9,000 extra a year off ... while they tell renters they get nothing.”
Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens spokesperson for housing, during a rally in front of Labor Party conference.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“You might see me or other people on the TV, but know that the only reason I’m standing there is because people like you stood up and fought back,” Chandler-Mather said.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney said in a speech to the national conference that she could not carry the weight of the Voice referendum on her own.
“We must do it together,” she said. “We need to get out there, to knock on doors, have the conversations in your communities, delegates. When we have power over our destiny, our children will flourish.”
Albanese praised Liberal rebels who supported the Voice advisory body and said Labor’s party machine would be key to winning the referendum.
Linda Burney at Labor’s national conference.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I want you to give the answer to every Australian who has looked at the stark realities of Indigenous disadvantage and ask themselves: Well what can I do about it?
“Tap into that abiding instinct for fairness that is so much part of the Australian character,” he said.
”After this referendum, a bit like the apology to the Stolen Generations, a bit like Mabo and Wik, a bit like native title, the 1967 referendum – when all this is done, people will look back and go, why didn’t we do it earlier?
“Because there’s everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose. No losers, just winners,” Albanese said.
“There is no more powerful force for change than our great Labor movement at its best and there is no cause more deserving of our support.
“This is not a journey that began with us. But it is a journey we have been given the great privilege of joining and a part of that privilege is a responsibility to make sure that all Australians hear the words that the authors of the Uluru Statement wrote them.”
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2023-08-19 06:13:51Z
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