Republic debate
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (15:27): Today I welcome Prime Minister Albanese’s overdue admission that appointing an Assistant Minister for the Republic was a mistake. He put a brave face on it, yet his effort to rewrite history was pretty transparent. If it is really true he only ever wanted one referendum, then why should the embarrassing and expensive failure of the Voice referendum tarnish this newly minted ministry? If it has not influenced the decision, then why create the role in June 2022 and abolish it only now? Even the Guardian called out the PM’s mistake, noting that after the referendum ‘what always looked like an indulgence became a white elephant’. As a freedom-of-speech-loving Liberal, I am happy for anyone to believe and say what they like, to hold dinners and organise campaigns, but it is wrong that this one side of the debate, the republican side, was funded by the Australian taxpayer for more than two years. The republican cause has adopted many of the same divisive, self-lacerating, guilt-inspired arguments as proponents of the Voice. For the same reason, I believe they will lose. As a proud Australian, I believe all Australians will reject the assertion we are fundamentally divided, unhappy and an unequal society and that the only solution is radical constitutional surgery and the creation of a new political class.