SUBJECT | Lidia Thorpe, Immigration Policy and Voice Referendum | 17 April 2023
PETE STEFANOVIC: Folks, thanks for your company this morning. Joining us live now is the shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan. Dan, we'll start with Lidia Thorpe. She seems to find trouble or trouble finds her, whichever one's right, but she's been involved in another verbal fracas. She says she was provoked this time. Is that a good enough defence?
DAN TEHAN: Look, I think Lidia Thorpe needs to explain her actions, but the rest of the country wants to focus on the issues that are important to them. We know that the Government is going to have to backtrack on its aged care promise. That will be another broken promise. Otherwise, we will have more pressure on aged care facilities across the country. People are dealing with increasing energy bills. The Government promised a $275 reduction; we're not seeing that. We're seeing pressure when it comes to interest rates. The Government looks like it's going to cut spending in productive areas. There’s some sort of secret deal with Victoria to cut infrastructure spending in Victoria because they don't seem to be able to get the budget under control in any other way. These are the issues which are important to the Australian people, and I think that's what we all need to be focussed on in the Federal Parliament at the moment.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, but what about Lidia Thorpe's behaviour? Have you got a view on that?
TEHAN: Look, that's for Lidia Thorpe to explain. I want to focus on matters that are important to my constituents and the nation. I want to be focused on my shadow portfolio. We know that there is no plan when it comes to immigration at the moment, and that's putting increased pressure on housing, rents, and on infrastructure. And the Government has no plan to deal with immigration at the moment. They're the things that are really important to the Australian people, and that's what all of us need to be focussed on at the moment.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, well, Pat Farmer, he's about to run across the country in support of the Voice. It's another ex-Lib campaigning against you. Does that hurt your efforts?
TEHAN: This is the strength of the Liberal Party. People will have views across the board when it comes to the Voice, and there will be Labor Party members who also don't think that the Voice is the right way to deal with the disadvantage we've seen in Indigenous communities. But the great thing about the Liberal Party is that we can speak up and we can have different views. We allow conscience votes. The Labor Party don't allow that. But the most important thing now is that we're all able to have a very sensible discussion around the Voice. For me, it's a point of principle. I think we should have equality in our Constitution. That's something- that's a principle that goes back to ancient Greek with Aristotle. We've always held the ideal that everyone should be equal before the law and that the very best constitution should enshrine that equality. That's the type of debate and discussion we should be having around the Voice. And my hope is we will be able to do that for the next 4 to 5 months.
STEFANOVIC: Simon Birmingham says he won't campaign against the Voice. Will you?
TEHAN: So, I will be there as a shadow minister articulating the decision that was made by our shadow cabinet. As I've said, this is a point of principle for me. Everything we've done as a nation has been about trying to get equality for all Australians. Equality in our Constitution for all Australians. Equality in the way that our law works for all Australians. And that is why I think the decision we've made is the right one, and I will continue to prosecute that until the day that we're going to have the referendum. And I would say to the Government one of the things that we don't know about now is when the referendum will be held. Because one of the things we've got to make sure that we continue to do as a nation; while this is a very, very important debate, we also need to be debating on those issues that are going to impact Australians every single day, the cost of living pressures, in particular, they’re facing.
STEFANOVIC: So, I mean, you mentioned this just then. So how will you prosecute? How will you campaign precisely against the Voice?
TEHAN: But we'll go out there, make the case, and make the argument as to why there is a better way. For instance, in western Victoria, we don't know who's going to represent, or be on, a local body. We don't know who's going to be on a regional body. And how can you have a national voice if you don't have those building blocks of local and regional voices? It's like building a house; you're starting with the roof, and there are no walls or foundations. These are the things that we will be out there articulating, will be articulating about the progress we've made in making sure that everyone is equal in our constitution and how we want to make sure that we continue down that path, not reversing that path. I mean, it's the famous Martin Luther King saying that what we want is a nation where everyone is judged by their character, not by the colour of their skin. That's the ideal. That's the ideal that the Enlightenment project has been seeking to implement for the last two 300 years. And that's where we think Australia should be heading. We'll continue to be out there making that case in a very constructive, in a very civil way to ensure that the Australian people can make a decision which is incredibly important. It’s about our constitution and adding a new chapter to our constitution. We need to be able to debate and discuss this.
STEFANOVIC: Dan Tehan, we'll leave it there.
