So now it’s the turn of the Deputy Leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, seeking to sow dissent over the Voice. Perhaps, because Mr Dutton’s messages are not cutting through, she’s coming to his aid. But her defence of Peter Dutton has its own form of irrationality.
She claims Mr Albanese has been ‘lashing out at Peter Dutton’. On the contrary Albanese is aware of the need for seeking consensus and the need for maintaining sensitivity in this delicate matter. And yes, Ms Ley, Albanese ‘wants the referendum to succeed’ and it will be ‘on his terms’ as the Coalition is either ‘against’ (Nationals) or ‘undecided’ (Liberals). So let’s move on.
Ms Ley wants the PM ‘to stop laying traps, stop willing the Coalition to oppose this’. Am I actually hearing this confected nonsense?
The Coalition has got itself into this unseemly vortex by not advancing the Uluru Statement when last in government. Remember Ken Wyatt, Minister for Indigenous Affairs in the Morrison government, who in 2019 committed the Morrison government to deliver a vote on constitutional recognition of a Voice by June 2021?
By January 2020 the same Mr Wyatt rejected the idea of a referendum and instead said it would be legislated… and no date was given. Since he lost his seat in last year’s election Mr Wyatt seems to have rediscovered his belief in constitutional recognition because on 17 January 2023 he stated, ‘there is enough detail in the Calma/Langton Report [the report explaining the pathway to a Voice – a very good reference manual for Mr Dutton – 272 pages long] for Australians to make up their minds on the Voice referendum’.
So Mr Wyatt appears to be back on board with the referendum. Ms Ley should take note. There is no bullying of ‘big’ Peter by ‘little’ Anthony, it’s just that Peter has lost his way.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
