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Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is “gone” after suggesting a referendum on the proposal could still pass in future.
The senior Labor senator told a Beetoota Advocate podcast the proposal for an advisory body, resoundingly defeated during the 2023 public vote, may in future be viewed in a similar way to the long campaign for same-sex marriage, enacted in 2017 after a postal plebiscite.
“I think we’ll look back on it in 10 years’ time and it’ll be a bit like marriage equality don’t you reckon?” she said.
“Like, I always used to say, marriage equality, which took us such a bloody fight to get that done, and I thought, all this fuss, it’ll become something like, people go ‘did we even have an argument about that?'”
On the issue of the vote’s failure, Wong characterised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as “not a pull the pin kind of guy”.
Speaking to SBS News on Wednesday, Wong clarified: “The Voice is gone.”
“The prime minister has made that clear, and the Australian people have made their position clear, and we respect the result of the referendum,” Wong said.
“What I would say is, that doesn’t mean reconciliation and closing the gap stops, and we need to keep together, progressing those.”
The 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice, which also put forward constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, was defeated with a 60 per cent No vote.
Since then, Albanese has publicly ruled out revisiting the “modest proposal” or moving to legislate an advisory body.
Asked about Wong’s comments on ABC Radio Melbourne on Wednesday, Albanese argued Wong did not claim another referendum was “inevitable”.
“She did not say that. She spoke about how people will look back on what the issues were. That’s very different from saying it’s inevitable,” he said.
Albanese elaborated at the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon that his support for the voice came “out of conviction, not out of convenience”.
“No prime minister has won a referendum in this country this century,” he said.
“What we are now working towards is practical reconciliation – how do we close the gap?
“The truth is that every government — Labor and conservative — has not done well enough because, if we had, we wouldn’t have the life expectancy gap, the education gap, the housing gap, the health gap.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out revisiting the Voice referendum. Source: AAP / Jason Edwards
Speaking in Melbourne, Opposition leader Peter Dutton argued Wong’s remarks show Labor has not abandoned plans to enact an advisory body through legislation.
“I think Australians will be scratching their heads saying, ‘I thought the prime minister had heard that we said no’,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“Send him a message at this election that, no, we’re not going to support the Voice legislated by Labor and the Greens, and treaty and truth telling, because we said we expressed our view very clearly.”
When will Albanese speak to Trump?
In a wide-ranging interview with SBS News, Wong said she would not speculate on when Albanese would next be able to have a conversation with United States President Donald Trump.
Albanese has so far been unsuccessful in organising a discussion after Australia was levied with a 10 per cent “reciprocal” tariff by the US.
Trump told reporters in Washington overnight he was aware of Australian government’s attempts to arrange a phone call over the issue.
“They are calling and I will be talking to him, yes,” Trump told reporters.
Albanese said on Wednesday morning he expected a “discussion after Saturday”, when it will become clear if his government has been re-elected.
“I assure you I’m not staying up at night trying to ring anyone at the moment, I’m in an election campaign,” he said.
Both major parties have openly expressed their opposition to the tariffs, citing Australia’s long-standing beneficial trade relationship with the US.
“I’m not going to speculate about calls between leaders, but I would say to you, we’ve made our position on tariffs clear,” Wong said.
“We’ve made our position on how Australia will deal with that.”
Opposition figures have been sharply critical of the government’s failure to secure a follow-up conversation with the US leader following the 2 April decision, while also rejecting comparisons between their election platform and Trump’s.
Speaking to SBS News last week, the Coalition’s spokesperson for foreign affairs David Coleman argued the Liberal agenda was “an Australia agenda”.
“We are very strong on free trade,” he said.
“It’s in our DNA, and obviously we’re very opposed to efforts to put up trade barriers.”
Future questions
Elected in 2001, the Malaysian-born Wong has become a senior figure in the Albanese government, holding the foreign affairs portfolio in both the Opposition and in government for more than a decade.
Over the last term of government, there has been considerable speculation about the South Australian senator’s long-term future in politics.
Asked if she was committed to serving throughout the next term in parliament, Wong responded: “Yes, I am.”
Coleman, her Opposition counterpart, obtained the portfolio earlier this year after senior moderate .
Coleman has expressed his desire to retain his current role if the Coalition is returned to power, but did not confirm he would be kept in the foreign affairs portfolio.
“Obviously, all decisions about ministers are made by the prime minister of the day, and that will be the case for all roles.”
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