The government has been urged to make public advice from the solicitor general that warned a key referendum group to the Voice to parliament over its wording.
Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser said on Sunday that “at a quarter to midnight” it had emerged the solicitor general told the Referendum Working Group there were problems with the government’s wording of proposed constitutional change, and suggested an alteration.
“If Australians are going to vote on these matters, we need to see the solicitor general’s advice,” Mr Leeser said on Sky News.
He said he had written to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Friday requesting the advice, however was yet to receive a reply.
Mr Leeser said it had also emerged during Senate Estimates that Mr Albanese had not consulted the solicitor general nor the Governor-general over the wording he had taken to the Garma festival.
He said none of opposition leader Peter Dutton’s 15 questions, given to Mr Albanese at the beginning of the year concerning the Voice, had been answered – including a call to clarify the definition of Aboriginality to determine who can sit on the body.
“It’s a question that’s been raised by Aboriginal people as well,” he added.
Mr Leeser said there were varying definitions of Aboriginality in Australian legislation, including the social security act and the childcare cct, and said the government needed to be clear over what definition it would use for the proposed constitutionally enshrined body.
“We’ve been consistently asking for the detail and the government doesn’t seem to want to give us the detail,” he said.
On Sky News last week, Labor MP Gordon Reid said it was “offensive” for Mr Dutton to probe the question of aboriginality.
Mr Leeser said Mr Dutton had kept an “open mind” over the Voice but the Liberal Party are yet to commit to a formal position.
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