Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied his government has failed to outline a way forward on Indigenous policy following last year’s unsuccessful Voice referendum.
In his first extended comments about the referendum in the new year, Mr Albanese told the ABC’s 7.30 the government was “looking for other ways to bring about” progress on Closing the Gap targets.
Asked whether Indigenous leaders had a clear picture of the government’s plans, he said they were “on the same page”.
“It’s up to them to have their own voice, and they’ll certainly do that, but I’ll make this point. There isn’t one Indigenous leader who I have engaged with, or indeed Indigenous people who were supportive of the Voice… who have said that it was the wrong thing to accept the invitation and the request and take it to the Australian people,” he said.
On policy, Mr Albanese said the government would press ahead with its plans to replace the Coalition-era Community Development Program, which he labelled “a work for the dole program”, with an alternative program to create “real jobs with real skills for Indigenous Australians”. The government first announced it would do this in August 2022, but has not yet done so.
The prime minister accepted the failure of the Voice happened “on [his] watch”, but blamed “a considerable fear campaign” and denied the result was “a vote against reconciliation”.
“It was a vote against a particular model, and some of that was about the way that was demonstrated to the public,” he said.
The comments come a day before the Productivity Commission is due to release its latest update on Closing the Gap progress, and a week before the 15th anniversary of former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations.
Coalition ‘disingenuous’ on tax: PM
Mr Albanese accused the Coalition of hypocrisy after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton revealed earlier on Tuesday he would seek to amend the government’s changes to the stage 3 tax cuts but would ultimately vote for them.
“If they were fair dinkum they would not only vote against it, they would… roll it back,” Mr Albanese said.
He denied political considerations had influenced his government’s change of direction on tax, repeating claims made earlier in the week by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Treasury officials that the idea had originated in the public service.
“[I want to] restore the faith in the public service and I want them to use their full capacity… we want [their] ideas,” he said.
The treasurer has previously confirmed Treasury began preparing advice on tax changes in December, but the prime minister said the advice was only finalised a week before the change was approved and formally announced at the National Press Club.
He defended his public insistence that his position “had not changed”, which he repeated days before changes were announced. “We hadn’t changed our position until the Cabinet did.
“We made a difficult decision but it was a good decision made at the right time and for the right reason.”
Legislation to enact the tax changes was introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. On Sunday, the prime minister said he wanted to see the legislation passed before parliament takes an extended break in April.
Mr Dutton said on Tuesday the Coalition would develop an alternative tax plan to take to the next election, but did not confirm whether that would include restoring the 37 per cent tax bracket and the other stage 3 changes. The government says that would cost nearly $40 billion over four years.