Did you say that for Peter? Dutton reuses the same lines against the voice with which he opposed Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations 15 years ago – before admitting he was wrong

Peter Dutton has been accused of rolling out the same excuses he used to apologize to the Stolen Generations 15 years ago for opposing the Voice to Parliament.

The Voice’s fierce opponent has led the charge by questioning whether it will deliver practical results for First Nations people and costs to the public at a time when families struggle to buy groceries and pay rent.

But the opposition leader’s concerns are much the same or similar to those that prompted his decision to boycott Kevin Rudd’s seminal apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 – a decision that Dutton later admitted he regretted.

Speaking of the apology during an interview on 15 March 2010, Mr Dutton said: ‘I viewed it as something that would not produce tangible results for children who are raped and tortured in 21st century communities.

“If I thought for a second that it would bring positive results for those kids, for their families, for those communities, I would support it in a heartbeat.

“But I thought it distracted us from that.”

These comments reflect the concerns expressed by Mr Dutton about the Voice to Parliament.

On 12 April 2023 he said: ‘I don’t believe a Canberra vote of 24 people mainly from capitals will be the solution to the problems here on the ground.

“If it was, I’d embrace it right away.”

And on April 5, he said: ‘We have been clear that we do not support his Canberra vote. It is divisive and does not deliver the results to the people on the ground.’

In May 2022, Mr Dutton admitted that he had made a mistake in boycotting the national apology.

He said his front-line experience as a Townsville police officer led him to believe that apologies “should be made when the issues are resolved” and not before.

At the time he vowed to work with the newly elected Labor government to improve conditions on the ground in disadvantaged Aboriginal communities, but he has since lost confidence that the Voice is the right mechanism to do so.

On 3 August this year, Mr Dutton expressed concern that the height of the cost of living crisis was the wrong time for the government to campaign so intensively for constitutional reform.

He said: ‘Australian families are currently paying more for their electricity bills; they pay more at the checkout; they pay more for their insurance; they pay more for their mortgages because of this incompetent government.

“The incompetence is not just being demonstrated in terms of the Prime Minister’s management around the vote, it is currently every aspect of government. The Australian public experiences that.’

One of the most repeated criticisms of The Voice – not directly from Mr Dutton but from his party and the No side in general – is that the Voice will lead to a treaty, which in turn could lead to reparations.

These two weeks, the opposition has tightened up the treaty and the functions of a Makarrata committee during question time in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

There are reports that a treaty — or several treaties, if that was the route the federal and state governments took — could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Treaties take decades to finalize, and proponents of Yes have repeatedly insisted that a vote in parliament remains the priority.

The opposition’s concerns about the potential costs to taxpayers that could result from the vote are also similar to those Mr Dutton had in 2008 prior to the apology.

On January 8, 2008, he said, “It would be inconceivable that they would consider an apology that could expose the government to serious damages claims without knowing what those claims would be.”

Mr Dutton suggested at the time that the government could face a huge compensation bill ‘at a time when the economy is under pressure’.

In June this year, Mr Dutton told Ray Hadley: ‘The Canberra Voice is ultimately a bureaucracy and it will be literally thousands of extra civil servants costing billions of dollars to provide advice and information on every area of ​​government policy.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly found similarities between Mr Dutton’s decision in 2008 and his current opposition to the Voice.

Just last week, the prime minister told parliament that the opposition had ‘decided to remain divided’ in their question line on the Voice.

“The leader of the opposition not only opposed it (the national apology), threatened to resign from the front bench and walked away. Walked away from that event.

“It was so terrible that at that moment of national unity, there were only a few people who were so determined to sow discord that they understood the concept of saying sorry for the wrong done, for stealing children from mothers, fathers and grandparents , families and communities. Couldn’t bear it.’

And on June 21, Mr Albanese said in parliament: “Earlier this year, the leader of the opposition apologized for boycotting the national apology to the stolen generations. But what we have is a return to the same script.’

The Prime Minister referred to a speech Mr Dutton gave earlier in 2023, in response to criticism of his handling of the apology.

He said, “I didn’t understand the symbolic meaning of the Stolen Generation’s apology at the time.”