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Ken Wyatt says politicising welcome to country ‘just adds to the division’
Former Liberal minister Ken Wyatt is on RN Breakfast and says welcome to country ceremonies are about being welcomed into “somebody’s home or somebody’s homeland”, and believes politics should “stay out of it”.
Wyatt was the first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians, but lost his seat in 2022, and left the Liberal party entirely during the voice to parliament referendum over the party’s stance.
Wyatt is asked whether he’s disappointed in how Peter Dutton, who has said the ceremonies are “overdone”, has handled the issue.
I’m disappointed with anybody who doesn’t take the time to understand the importance of friendship, welcoming and acknowledging that you are part of the community and you’re being welcomed into somebody’s home country, home region, and to politicise it just adds to the division. We have enough challenges in dealing with so many issues.
I think when you start to politicise elements of Aboriginal affairs or cultural practices, then you start a process of allowing division to occur.
Key events
Josh Butler
Peter Dutton’s campaign has landed in Nowra, in the Labor seat of Gilmore. The Liberal leader made the short flight from Sydney this morning, and we’re expecting an event with Andrew Constance, the perennial Liberal candidate, this morning.
In some political sporting this morning, we’ve just seen former Liberal minister Marise Payne outside the event. More to come soon.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Anthony Albanese is making his first campaign stop on Tuesday in the inner-city Brisbane seat of Griffith, held by Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather.
Albanese is inspecting an under-construction housing development in Stones Corner, which will include 50 social and 32 affordable dwellings.
Housing is a major pillar of Albanese’s re-election campaign, with Labor promising 100,000 homes for first-home buyers and an expansion of its 5% deposit scheme to all first-home buyers.
Albanese is touring the site – built with funding from federal housing programs – with Labor’s candidate in Griffith, Renee Coffey, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the health minister, Mark Butler.
The prime minister is due to hold a press conference shortly, where you can bet he’ll accuse the Greens – and Chandler-Mather in particular – of holding up desperately needed housing projects with its “blocking” of key legislation in parliament.
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson has responded to reports that members of a separatist Christian sect have been campaigning for the Liberal party in marginal seats.
That’s despite members of the sect not voting. Paterson tells ABC News Breakfast:
There’s no religious test for participation in public life in Australia, and the Liberal Party is not going to start enforcing one. We do not ask our volunteers about their religious beliefs.
Paterson is pressed on whether the volunteer share Liberal values and whether enough has been done to vet them?
Paterson pushes back:
Are you suggesting that we should interview potential volunteers about their religious beliefs? … I think that would be an extraordinary thing in a country that has no official state religion, that has freedom of religion, that we would say that some people are not welcome to participate in the political process because of their beliefs.
Dutton appears hesitant to back royal commission into domestic violence
Peter Dutton has appeared hesitant to commit to a royal commission into domestic violence, speaking to 4BC radio this morning.
Dutton spoke to the program in May last year and said:
I think there’s a strong argument for a royal commission if we know that it’s going to produce the evidence that gives us a path … it’s a yes if that’s what’s required.
But today, Dutton seemed less inclined to back a full royal commission:
We will do … whatever it takes to reduce domestic violence in our country. It’s a scourge, and you can spend a lot of money on a royal commission and you can make lawyers rich, and then you end up with recommendations that seem pretty obvious anyway.
But pushed by host Peter Fegan again on whether the Coalition would support a royal commission, Dutton then says:
Well, if a royal commission is required, then yes.
Domestic violence has only become a campaign issue over the last week, after the Coalition announced a $90m package, and both major parties made other more localised announcements on housing and women’s shelters.
Dutton has previously pledged a royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities, which has been rejected by First Nations groups.
Ken Wyatt on welcome to country on Anzac Day: ‘I don’t know what the contentious issue is’
Wyatt is asked specifically about welcome to country ceremonies on Anzac Day, and says he doesn’t know “what the contentious issue is”.
I don’t know what the contentious issue is, and whether people, as individuals, have perception that it’s political as opposed to welcoming. That becomes the matter that they raise with politicians, who then don’t go back and do their own work in terms of finding out what does welcome to country really mean, and distinguishing it from acknowledgement to country.
Back in 2020, as a minister, Wyatt led calls for the WA RSL to reverse a ban on the Aboriginal flag and welcome to country ceremonies at all of its Anzac and Remembrance Day services.
Asked what it was like to talk to the WA RSL to get them to drop that ban, Wyatt says:
It was a good, amicable conversation. It’s no different to what I’m having with you now, in terms of saying, this is about knocking on your door, looking at the opportunity of saying, ‘Hey, we’re Australians, we’re on the same continent, but all we’re doing is welcoming you to our Whadjuk country, or Gadigal, or whatever, and making people feel as though they’re part of a friendship. That’s important.
Ken Wyatt says politicising welcome to country ‘just adds to the division’
Former Liberal minister Ken Wyatt is on RN Breakfast and says welcome to country ceremonies are about being welcomed into “somebody’s home or somebody’s homeland”, and believes politics should “stay out of it”.
Wyatt was the first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians, but lost his seat in 2022, and left the Liberal party entirely during the voice to parliament referendum over the party’s stance.
Wyatt is asked whether he’s disappointed in how Peter Dutton, who has said the ceremonies are “overdone”, has handled the issue.
I’m disappointed with anybody who doesn’t take the time to understand the importance of friendship, welcoming and acknowledging that you are part of the community and you’re being welcomed into somebody’s home country, home region, and to politicise it just adds to the division. We have enough challenges in dealing with so many issues.
I think when you start to politicise elements of Aboriginal affairs or cultural practices, then you start a process of allowing division to occur.
Albanese says Dutton bus mishap ‘symbolic’ of his campaign
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is doing a run of FM radio interviews in Brisbane after touching down in the Queensland capital very late on Monday night.
Straight off the bat on B105 Brisbane, Albanese has a dig at Peter Dutton, joking that yesterday’s mishap with the media bus following the opposition leader was “symbolic” of his campaign.
Albanese is asked about his personal opinion of his political rival.
We got on OK. This [election] is about two very different views about how the country should [be run]. I think he [Dutton] is a deeply conservative man.
Albanese confirmed he would visit a housing construction site later this morning, where he will no doubt spruik Labor efforts to build more social housing and help first-home buyers break into the market.
The prime minister has made several visits to Brisbane during the campaign with Labor targeting the seats of Griffith and Brisbane, which fell to the Greens at the 2022 election. It is also eyeing a surprise win in Liberal-held Bonner.
When asked about Liberal preferences, Paterson says One Nation won’t actually win any lower house seats
Asked about the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation in seats across the country, something that wasn’t done under any other Liberal party from John Howard to Scott Morrison, Paterson says – somewhat unsurprisingly – that it’s a matter for the “party organisation”.
Paterson says the Liberal preferences won’t be distributed to the One Nation candidates anyway.
The Liberal party preferences will not be distributed to One Nation candidates in any set around the country, because One Nation is not in contention to win any lower house seat anywhere around the country.
They’re [Labor are] preferencing the Greens, who can win those seats and will receive Labor preferences if Labor is eliminated in some of those seats.
While Paterson might be right that One Nation won’t necessarily get enough votes for the Liberals’ preferences to go to them, it does mean that the minor rightwing party has put the Liberals as their second preference in some seats – and that could swing some seats to the Coalition’s favour.
James Paterson agrees with Dutton on welcome to country ceremonies but booing ‘not appropriate’
Following Katy Gallagher on RN Breakfast is Coalition campaign spokesperson James Paterson.
They start on welcome to country ceremonies, and Paterson says he agrees with his leader that they’re “overdone”.
Sally Sara asks Paterson why Dutton, who on Anzac Day said we should be proud to celebrate our Indigenous heritage on the day, but then said yesterday that dawn services were not “significant” enough for welcome to country ceremonies.
Paterson denies that that was a change in position, and says the booing on Anzac Day was “not appropriate”.
It is never appropriate to boo at an Anzac day ceremony for any reason, but it is especially not appropriate to boo the images of Indigenous soldiers who bravely and proudly served our country in uniform, especially when, frankly, their country didn’t treat them very well as citizens at the time.
Gallagher pressed on Labor’s spending and AAA rating warning
Labor’s costings follow a warning to both parties from ratings agency S&P yesterday that spending soaring towards post-second world war highs could threaten Australia’s AAA rating.
On the ABC’s 7.30 last night, Anthony Albanese said there was “no suggestion” the AAA rating was at risk, saying “the triple A credit rating is there”.
Katy Gallagher is asked on RN Breakfast whether Labor’s spending commitments are a risk to that rating.
The budget is actually slightly better after we have provided these costings than it was at budget time. We’ve more than fully offset the spending.
Gallagher then takes a stab at the opposition over their nuclear plan.
But host Sally Sara presses on the many years of deficits that are forecast and what Labor’s going to do about it. Gallagher says:
There’s continued work to do on budget repair. There’s no doubt about that. But we have, you know, from what we inherited when we came in to government in 2022, you know, we had a deficit in that first year of $78bn, we turned that into a surplus.
Martin Farrer
‘Final result could be closer than this poll suggests’: Roy Morgan
The latest Roy Morgan poll has Labor ahead on 53% (up 0.9% from the 2022 federal election) ahead of the Coalition on 47% (down 0.9%) on a two-party-preferred basis.
This would be enough to return Anthony Albanese to government with an increased majority but nevertheless shows a swing of 2.5% to the Coalition compared with a week ago.
The move is the result of early voting showing a bias towards the Coalition, Roy Morgan said.
Around 2.4 million Australians voted last week (representing over 13% of the total enrolment) and an analysis of early voters shows the Coalition performing better among those who had already voted. These trends suggest the final result could be closer than this poll suggests as we approach election day and we could still be facing a potential minority government if the ALP fail to gain a majority.
Despite the large two-party preferred swing, the primary support for the major parties was little changed on a week ago with the Coalition on 34.5% (up 0.5%) now just ahead of the ALP on 34% (down 0.5%).