Key word missing from Albo transcript

The Prime Minister took part in a fiery interview about the Voice on Sydney’s 2GB Radio on Wednesday morning that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton later labelled a “trainwreck”.

Australians will vote in the second half of this year on whether the Constitution should be amended to enshrine a body to advise parliament on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Mr Albanese said “no, no” on 2GB when host Ben Fordham asked him if the federal government had consulted the Solicitor-General on the referendum. These words are not on the transcript.

Mr Albanese continued his answer by saying: “We got advice from a range of High Court judges, former High Court judges are on the record, such as Justice French and others.”

This part of his answer was correctly recorded in the transcript, which his office distributed and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet published later on Wednesday morning.

Mr Albanese gave the answer during a generally messy interview with Fordham, the transcripts of which were marked E & OE to reflect “errors and omissions excepted”.

The exchange began when Fordham asked Mr Albanese if he had received advice from the Attorney-General about the proposed change to the constitution.

“We had legal advice from the best legal minds in the country. And, of course, the Attorney-General was involved in those processes,” Mr Albanese said.

After Fordham tried twice more to ask about the Attorney-General’s advice, Mr Albanese said he was confusing two issues and the Attorney-General “isn’t there to give legal advice”.

“The Solicitor-General is the person, which you are confusing … who gives legal advice to the government,” Mr Albanese said.

“The Attorney-General is a political officer who’s the first law officer of the land.”

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office said: “All the Prime Minister’s transcripts are distributed clearly stating E & OE (errors and omissions excepted).”

But Fordham seized on the omission in the transcript, saying on Thursday that Mr Albanese’s office had “been caught rewriting history on his trainwreck interview on 2GB”.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus clarified that the Solicitor-General was involved in the work being done on the referendum and proposed constitutional amendment.

“Many of Australia’s most eminent constitutional legal experts have advised, and will continue to advise, on the draft amendment,” he said.

“In addition to the work being done by the Solicitor-General and other government lawyers, I’m grateful for the work of the constitutional expert group.”

This group of seven top legal experts is advising the government and referendum working group on key legal issues related to the proposed constitutional change.

Under the draft amendment, the Voice would be empowered to make representations to the parliament and the executive government about matters, including existing or proposed laws, policies or decisions that have a connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The draft provision does not provide the Voice with a veto power over the functions or powers of the parliament or the executive.

The opposition has been demanding more details on how the advisory body will operate, with Mr Dutton suggesting it be legislated so that Australians can see how it works before they vote on it in a referendum.

But Labor has emphasised that having the constitution amended to enshrine the Voice was the form of recognition that Indigenous leaders called for in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.