Television Interview - Sky News Sharri

Sharri Markson, Host: Well, let's bring in now tonight's political panel, National Senator Matt Canavan and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman. Welcome to you both. Matt, starting with you, you know, Jacinta Price is one of your colleagues. What did you think of her comments today about colonisation helping to improve the lives of Indigenous people?

Matt Canavan, Senator for Queensland: Well, what I love about Jacinta Price, what I think people do love about her is she just tells it as it is. And people often here in Canberra walk on eggshells with these sort of things. But clearly, the modern prosperous country we are, which includes a heritage, a colonial heritage, is a great thing for everyone who lives here and so many people want to live here. They all want to move here. More people than we can take want to come to Australia. It's a great, great place, to live. So our colonial heritage, our Aboriginal heritage, our migrant heritage, we should all be very proud of, and I'm as proud as Jacinta of that. So thank God she says that and also I think you can tell Jacinta's not a politician. She's not a politician because today she said she wants to put herself out of a job. She wants to do such a good, she wants our nation to do such a good job with Indigenous Affairs that they won't have to be an Indigenous Affairs Minister anymore. Now that's never said here in Canberra, no one ever says that. This whole place operates, the oxygen of this place is to create more and more problems because that creates more and more jobs, more and more people in public servants. And I think that's exactly where the Voice is going. The Voice will be about perpetuating a problem, perpetuating this division, not actually finding solutions, which I love to see Jacinta is focused on.

Markson: Patrick Gorman. What did you think of those comments about colonisation?

Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to Prime Minister and Assistant Minister for the Public Service: Well, what I recognise in the discussion that the nation is going to have over the next month is that everyone has a different lived experience. I've heard what Senator Price has had to say today, I've heard from First Nations people over many years, they have had very different views about that particular question, but I think one of the things that has always stuck with me is this idea that we sort of have this opportunity where you have 65, 000 years of continuous, history from the First Nations of Australia. You have the history of Australia since you've had arrival of European people. And as Matt mentioned, you know, the great benefits that have come from the multicultural nation we've built together and what we look at now is on the 14th of October, we have an opportunity to write the next part of that history that brings people together, recognises that actually our Constitution should recognise the first peoples of Australia. That's the question that I think we're all discussing. Everyone will bring their different perspectives to that. But I hear a range of different perspectives on that particular point.

Markson: Yeah. All right. Look, at the same time as Noel Pearson has been trying to re-pitch the Yes campaign, to promote a message of love,  Marcia Langton's comments saying that Australians are racist have emerged this week. Matt Canavan, do you think that this is the equivalent of Hillary Clinton's Deplorable moment?

Canavan: I think it's worse. I think it's worse than that. I mean, Deplorable is one thing, but, you know, you pretty much can't have a worse label to put on someone in modern times than being called a racist. And at least one of these comments that Miss Langton has said in recent times, she effectively accused one in five Australians of, of being racist and I think it's, it's terribly unhelpful to, to what we should be creating here. And we have to remember here that Miss Langton is one of the authors of the Government's agenda here. And it's not just her either. This is not just some rogue individual. We've got Mr Mayo out there, as well, he's this week saying he wants unions to use their right of entry laws to go into workplaces and campaign for the Voice. These are radical, radical people and there's clearly a hidden agenda here behind the Voice to sow this division, to create a whole new bureaucratic label layer here in Canberra with its own associated, ideas. And I don't think the Australian people want that. That's not what they signed up to. And it's certainly not what Patrick’s selling, Patrick's trying to, you just heard him say, ‘we want to recognise people in the Constitution,’ but that's not what this question's about. It's about creating a massive new bureaucracy here in Canberra that will divide our country forever in our founding document. And I think that's what the Australian people have reacted to and what they seem to be rejecting right now.

Markson: Patrick, the Opposition in Question Time this week kept calling on the Prime Minister and Linda Burney to condemn Marcia Langton’s comments when she accused Australians and also the No campaign of racism. Why wouldn't the Government do that?

Gorman: This Referendum is not about any one individual and it's not about any one comment from one individual. This referendum, and I just want to address what the referendum is about because Matt suggested that maybe I was not being open about what it is, it's really simple. It's about recognition. It's about listening and it's about getting better results. That's what the proposal is about.

Canavan: And the Voice. And don't forget the Voice.

Gorman: And what the Voice is about is about, a conversation that's happened since 2017, and we know that, Professor Langton and others were appointed by the Cabinet when Peter Dutton sat in Cabinet, appointed to go and do work about what this would look like, how it would come together and how it would enhance Representative Government in Australia. So I think what's really important is we recognise that we're going to go through the next month –

Markson: But just on Marcia Langton's comments because, as Matt Canavan said, she has been put up as one of the faces or one of the architects of the Voice and she has offended Australians. She said just in the past few months that 22 per cent of Australians are deeply racist, that these are the people Peter Dutton's appealing - to that's her language. So, you know, why doesn't the Government distance itself from these remarks?

Gorman: That's not my language. I believe that every Australian has a responsibility over the course of the next month to lift the quality of the debate. What the Australian people deserve as we discuss a very important question about changing our constitution to deliver constitutional recognition through a Voice. Our preference is that they deserve a debate that's faced in facts. They deserve a debate that is respectful. They deserve a debate where we don't have some of the misinformation and other things that have been brought in. But I'd say to everyone, as the Minister for Indigenous Australians has said in question time this week, we all have a responsibility to ensure this is a respectful debate. That's what I'll be doing, and that's what my colleagues will be doing.

Markson: Alright, look, on another topic, just before we came on air tonight, breaking news, Senator Matt Canavan, you tabled a report, an interim report, into the Council 2026 Commonwealth Games, urging action from the Federal Government to try and save the event. Matt Canavan, you tabled this report, what are you asking here?

Canavan: Well, we've got three years, three years to go here, less really, and the clock's ticking on the Commonwealth Games in 2026, we've successfully, or as a Commonwealth, successfully held the Commonwealth Games every time, except since World War II. And I don't think we as a country, want to preside over the first time, the first failure, in more than 70 years. And now, I'm not blaming the, the Federal Government. I’ll be very clear here, it's got nothing, this decision, the cancellation has got nothing to do with the Albanese Government. This is all the fault of Dan Andrews and all of that blame should be sheathed home to him. However, when you are the Prime Minister, sometimes you've got to get your hands dirty and fix problems which you didn't create. Sometimes they're acts of God, sometimes they're just things that happen.

Gorman: Sometimes it's the Morrison Government.

Canavan: You've got to, well, whatever it is, yeah, there's mistakes we've made too that you've got to clean up, I’ll be open about that. You've got to take responsibility. And what we have at the moment is the Prime Minister not taking any responsibility. His own Sports Minister has not even been briefed. We’ve got more proactivity from a mayor on the Gold Coast here trying to find a solution. He's put his hand up, put his city up, saying, let's do something. Let's just try and - Anthony Albanese is acting like Pontius Pilate washing his hands. Let's just try and save the games. Maybe it's not possible, but let's give it a go, Albo. Our athletes deserve that. The Pacific Islands that participate in these sports want that. They told the committee that. Let's try and make this happen.

Markson: Alright, we're out of time, but very quickly, Patrick Gorman, do you think there should be a review into whether the Federal Government should try and save the Commonwealth Games, even though it was the Victorian Government, Daniel Andrews’ fault that they have been cancelled?

Gorman: Look, it won't surprise you. I haven't read Matt's report that he's just tabled. I'm sure at some point I will, but I haven't yet what it comes when it comes down to it. Matt knows as well as every other Member of Parliament in this place, it is states that are the proponents of these bids. Where there are good proposals, as we've seen in Queensland for the Olympics and Paralympics in 2032, we partner with them, get something good. I'm pleased to be backing a great set of events that's happening in Matt's home state that would be good for Australia. I'm from Western Australia, I'm excited about the Olympics and Paralympics coming Down Under, that'll be great, but I think the horse has well and truly bolted on Australia's role in the 2026 -

Canavan: Someone else's problem.

Markson: - the horse has bolted. Well, alright, well. A debate to be continued. Patrick Gorman and Matt Canavan, thank you both very much.