Tony Abbott has described the ongoing Voice to Parliament debate as a “perilous” time for Australia, calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to scrap it altogether.
Tony Abbott has dismissed the Solicitor-General’s advice when it comes to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, describing the proposal as a “perilous” time in the nation’s history.
On Friday, Stephen Donaghue’s submission revealed that the proposal is constitutionally sound and would not impose any obligations on the government.
He stated it “would not pose any threat to Australia’s system of representative and responsible government”.
However Mr Abbott, a former prime minister, said the advice gave him “no confidence whatsoever”.
“The Solicitor-General did his best to minimise the dangers but he certainly can’t rule out the dangers,” he told Sky News Australia.
“Because in the end it’s not the Solicitor-General who interprets the constitution, it’s the High Court.”
Mr Donaghue went on to explain, that in his legal opinion, this would be “inconsistent with the deliberate textual choice to empower the Voice to make ‘representations’ rather than to ‘consult’, and with the ordinary operation of responsible government”.
The opinion, dated April 19, refutes concerns raised by critics the Voice’s power to make representations to the executive government would somehow impede decision-making or lead to excessive court cases.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Solicitor-General’s advice was “very clear” and slammed the Coalition’s attempt to smear the Voice campaign with false claims.
“The Solicitor-General’s advice that we asked for to the committee that has been forwarded by the Attorney-General… is very clear and it is unequivocal,” he said.
“This puts to bed the absolute nonsense of Peter Dutton and Barnaby Joyce and all the nonsense that they have carried on with.”
Mr Abbott said Mr Albanese would be better off dropping the proposal, rather than risk it failing.
“I think this is quite a perilous time for our country, I think that one way or another this referendum, will leave our country damaged and divided,” he said.
“I think the Prime Minister has gone about this the wrong way. I think he would be better of pulling this thing rather than risking it failing.”
Newly appointed shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said Friday’s release was merely “a new opinion” requested by the government for the purpose of making it public.
She called on the government to to be true to their word and release all of the advice.
“Australians are entitled to see all of the Solicitor-General’s advice about the Voice,” she added.
“The government’s refusal to release the earlier Solicitor-General advices only demonstrates that the Albanese government is prepared to compromise the integrity of the office of the Solicitor-General by selectively releasing legal advice when it is in their political interests.”