A bunch of toxic idiots.
Hiding legal advice on Voice is untenable
The government is refusing to release the advice of the Commonwealth solicitor-general on the Indigenous Voice, but the public is unlikely to buy its argument.
The government’s refusal to release the advice of the Commonwealth solicitor-general on the Indigenous Voice to parliament is untenable – and it has only itself to blame.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has tried over the past week to explain why the public won’t get to see what the government’s chief legal adviser thinks of the legal impact of enshrining the advisory body in the Constitution.
Dreyfus has been doing a terrible job, getting on a high horse about “the way things are done” and splitting hairs in response to reasonable questions about comparisons with advice provided on Scott Morrison’s secret ministries.
The AG says we can’t see the advice from Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue, KC, on the Voice because it would be “inconsistent with long-standing practice of successive governments, including the government for the last nine years”.
But every inquisitor on either radio or TV has pointed out that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was very happy to release the advice from Donaghue that skewered Morrison’s five secret portfolios as having “fundamentally undermined” principles of responsible government.
Dreyfus’ best line – that Morrison operated in secret while the Voice is “public” – demonstrates the weakness of his argument. It’s not, as he insisted to Neil Mitchell of 3AW on Monday, “a very, very, very different situation”.
The government might have to find a way to get Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue on the record. Alex Ellinghausen
When the government wanted to make a political point on the Morrison ministries it was happy to release the advice.
As Mitchell said: “You have secret advice, which we can’t hear, that has been released – advice has been released by your government in the past as recently as a few months ago. This is even more in the public interest than what Scott Morrison did.”
The most notable change in the Voice wording is in the third clause of the constitutional amendment. The words have been reordered and “including” added to list its powers, to underline that parliament will control how the Voice operates and the legal effect of its representations.
The original clause said parliament would have “power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures”. Now it says it will have “power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures”.
The government might have to find a way to get Donaghue on the record if it is to make a convincing case to voters that this won’t lead to 10 years of litigation – and untold disruption to the public service as decisions are held up waiting for representations by the Voice.
AFR
Écrasez l’Infame
. This infamous referendum must be crushed.