Nat Barr has taken the Albanian government to task over the confusion over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament – as polls show the ‘Yes’ vote has fallen to its lowest level yet.
The TV presenter spoke about the referendum with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and North Queensland Liberal National Party Senator Matt Canavan on Channel Seven’s morning show Sunrise on Monday.
The latest Newspoll shows support for ‘Yes’ at 36 percent, down 2 points in three weeks, while ‘No’ has risen to 56 percent, up 3 points from the previous poll, marking the lowest support and marks the highest level of opposition to date.
Barr referred Ms. Plibersek to the questions she received from a stunned public still questioning the advisory body’s scope.
“Tanya, do you accept that you have a problem?” she started.
Sunrise host Nat Barr (pictured) has slammed the Albanian government over the confusion over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament
‘Because people tell me that questions are not answered there, there are these very big motherhood declarations.’
“But people say to me, ‘Will this have the ability to close mines in Washington, can you guarantee that the Voice to Parliament will not delay the government’s actions, will a decision be taken to court again and again?’ ‘ she said.
“Can you guarantee that decisions taken by ministers and by the government will not get bogged down in the courts?”
‘That’s what ordinary Australians say to mee. Do you think your campaign answers these questions?’
Ms Plibersek assured Barr and those who questioned the Voice’s reach that the body has no veto power over government and that Parliament “will always be the ultimate decision maker.”
National Senator Matt Canavan intervened and accused the answer of being ‘not true’.
“That’s not true because the Supreme Court will decide,” Senator Canavan said. ‘You don’t decide, you can’t give those guarantees. The Supreme Court will decide our Constitution.”
Ms Plibersek fired back: “This is exactly the scare campaign that is the problem….”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (pictured) reassured Barr and those questioning the Voice’s reach that the body does not have veto power over the government
Barr jumped in, interrupting her and saying, “Matt, you have your say and then we’ll get Tanya to respond. How do you see the problem?’
Senator Canavan said many Australians are concerned about the list of ‘unanswered questions’.
“It will be an unelected Supreme Court judge who will decide whether the Voice actually has any influence on these issues,” he said.
‘We are very proud of our Constitution. It is the tenth oldest constitution in the world and has been amended only eight times in our history.
“There is rightly a very high bar for change and I don’t think the government has met that because they haven’t been able to expand on these issues, they haven’t provided the detail and it seems that Australians, as usual on constitutional issues, are pushing for change , are rightly cynical about the government making changes in this regard.’
Senator Canavan said many voters are “cynical about governments making additional changes, and I think rightly so.”
“We could have a voice. I don’t know why we need to change our constitution.’
The latest Newspoll shows support for ‘Yes’ at 36 percent, down 2 points in three weeks, while ‘No’ has risen to 56 percent, up 3 points from the previous poll, marking the lowest support and marks the highest level of opposition to date (pictured, Anthony Albanese speaking at a Yes rally)
Earlier in the interview, Ms. Plibersek acknowledged that support for the vote could be stronger.
“Look, we would obviously like to see stronger numbers, but I’m focused on the next three weeks of the campaign and I’ll be talking to people every day about why I’m voting yes,” she said.
‘I vote yes to reconciliation, vote yes to listening and, most importantly, vote yes to better results. We know we get better results when we make decisions with the people affected. Our democracy works better when we listen.’
The Indigenous Voice will provide advice to Parliament and the Albanian Government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Voice referendum will take place on October 14.