WA Liberal leader withdraws support for 'Yes' campaign
This week WA's Labor government backflipped on controversial Aboriginal cultural heritage laws. Now the state's Liberal leader Libby Mettam has had a change of heart and decided to withdraw her support for the Voice.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Libby Meadham, you were a strong supporter of the voice.
00:05 What's changed?
00:06 Well, our experience in Parliament over the last few months.
00:12 We have seen the repeal of a piece of legislation just weeks after it has been implemented as
00:20 a result of an approach of providing the details later.
00:25 You've said yourself that the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and the voice are separate issues.
00:31 Is this politically convenient to change your mind on the voice now?
00:35 They're separate issues, but the approach raises the same concerns.
00:42 An approach where we're asking, or a government is asking the people to trust us on the intention
00:49 of a piece of legislation or on an issue with the proviso that the details will be provided
00:58 later.
00:59 We had that with the Cultural Heritage Act where in 2021 the opposition was asked to
01:05 support the legislation with the regulations which would come out later.
01:12 With the voice as well, Anthony Albanese and the federal government are saying we will
01:18 provide the details later.
01:20 And we've seen...
01:21 There's been hundreds of pages of consultation papers published on the voice.
01:25 Have you read through those?
01:26 As I've said, we've seen the significant cost of that with extraordinary outcry and a government
01:34 approach which has seen the repeal of legislation that they had introduced themselves.
01:40 An extraordinary act as a result of not getting those details right in the first instance.
01:47 In April when you were speaking in support of the voice, you mentioned what a shame it
01:52 would be if decades of work developing that model went to waste.
01:58 Do you not feel that way anymore?
01:59 I absolutely agree that this is a great opportunity to get this right.
02:06 And the Prime Minister has the opportunity to do that.
02:10 Whether there is a pause, whether we are looking at putting the voice in legislation to start
02:17 with and seeing how that works, we cannot afford to get it wrong.
02:22 What specific detail would you need to see on the voice to feel confident voting yes
02:26 if you've said you support the intent of it?
02:29 Well, there are very simple questions that are still yet to be answered in terms of the
02:36 make-up of the voice, how the members of the committee would be, whether they'd be elected
02:43 or selected, how it would lead to practical outcomes on the ground.
02:49 What we can't afford is to see the absolute confusion and mess that we have seen under
02:56 the WA Labor Government who've had to repeal legislation just weeks after it had been implemented.
03:04 Ms. Meadham, have you bowed to pressure from federal colleagues like Peter Dutton or Michaelia
03:09 Cash?
03:10 Absolutely not.
03:12 As you would be aware, I came out on day one expressing what my view has been.
03:18 And I've been to many forums where I have expressed my position, but I cannot take away
03:26 from the experience I have had as a state member of parliament in this place where we've
03:31 seen a government with an approach of providing the details after the fact and what we have
03:36 actually seen.
03:37 Could you just remind us why you were in support of the voice and how else you might achieve
03:42 those intentions?
03:44 I was supportive and remain supportive of Indigenous recognition in the Constitution.
03:54 And I will always support ways in which we can close the gap for Aboriginals in Australia.
04:03 And what I was hopeful of and what many Australians and Western Australians are hopeful of is
04:11 more detail on how this voice, the voice that has been proposed, will lead to some real
04:20 practical outcomes.
04:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]