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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

Anthony Albanese says there are people running around Canberra claiming the sky is falling.

Chicken Littles, he calls them – and he’s accused these doomsayers of trying to whip up unfounded fears about the Voice.

Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has reacted to the name as if it’s a deeply insulting slur, but it’s hardly the most charged language that’s been used by a politician in recent weeks.

Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper, Paul Bongiorno, on whether the sky is falling, and whether Mark McGowan’s resignation is a sign.

It’s Friday, June 2.

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RUBY:

So, Paul, I want to start by talking about this phrase that the Prime Minister has been using this week. He's been calling some opponents of the Voice to Parliament, Chicken Littles. So what does he mean by that idea, and why has that become a talking point for Anthony Albanese?

PAUL:

Oh, Ruby. Well, Chicken Little was a kid's fairy story. I remember reading it to my own daughters 40 plus years ago. It's a story of a chicken who runs around saying the sky is falling, based on the fact that an acorn hit him on the head. And of course, it's become, well, a metaphor for doomsaying and false alarm. And this is the point that Albanese wanted to make about all the nay saying going on against the Voice referendum. And he used the reference in his Lowitja O'Donoghue oration given in Adelaide, on Monday.

Archival tape – Anthony Albanese:

“Yes, there are scare campaigns. But what those campaigns have in common is that they underestimate Australians so radically.”

PAUL:

Well, Albanese said there have been claims made in Parliament that the Voice could even have an effect on parking tickets.

Archival tape – Anthony Albanese:

“It's only a matter of time before they tell us that the Voice will fade the curtains.”

PAUL:

Albanese is confident because Australians have an ethos of a fair go, that they won't succumb to these appeals to fear, and the ever more ludicrous invitations to jump, quote, “at our own shadows”, unquote.

Archival tape – Anthony Albanese:

“That's because Australians have a healthy scepticism of doomsayers. A scepticism kept in good health by memories of all the predictions offered by the Chicken Littles of the past. Remember how the sky was going to fall in after the apology? Please enjoy the sky as you head back out today. Still safely in place.”

PAUL:

Well, Peter Dutton accused the Prime Minister of name calling, and of suggesting that he, Peter Dutton, was a racist, which he says is completely unacceptable. But, you know, I think this was a distraction from the enormous controversy that Dutton, had in fact, created around his own arguments. Well, Albanese wasn't put off by this admonition from his opponent.

Archival tape – Anthony Albanese:

“Every time that we've done an action towards reconciliation with Aboriginal Australians, there has been declarations that it would lead to all sorts of consequences, which of course haven't been true.”

PAUL:

The Prime Minister cited that when Kevin Rudd gave the apology to the Stolen Generations, we were told there would be catastrophic consequences, and of course there weren't. He said that the apology was a uniting moment for the nation.

Archival tape – Anthony Albanese:

“So will recognising Aboriginal Australians in our nation's constitution.”

PAUL:

And he said, referring back to the landmark Mabo decision in 1992, which once the High Court, rejected the lie of ‘terra nullius’. You know, the Australian continent was empty when Captain Cook got here. Well, Paul Keating had to put that decision into law, and people were running around saying that the Mabo decision means that people will lose heir houses and their backyard swimming pools. I remember it well. Of course, as Albanese said, it was all nonsense.

RUBY:

Right. So this is Albanese really taking Dutton on then, over the Voice to Parliament. He's accusing Dutton of running a scare campaign. So is Dutton doubling down? What is he saying? Because only a week ago you and I were talking about some of the things that he was saying in Parliament, claiming it would re-racialize Australia.

PAUL:

Well, look, it does seem that there's been something of a rethink, although I wouldn't put all my money on that. I think that Peter Dutton's put this argument out there in the hope that it'll keep percolating, but it has discomforted his Coalition allies in the National Party.

Archival tape – David Littleproud:

“Well, I understand the intent, but what we want to make sure is the tone…”

PAUL:

David Littleproud, the Leader of The Nationals. Well, he doesn't support the use of the word ‘re-racialize’ and The Nationals will be the main authors of the official ‘No’ pamphlet. That's the 2000 word essay that will be posted out to 14 million Australian households a couple of weeks before the referendum vote.

Archival tape – David Littleproud:

“I'm not challenging his intent, I'm just…the wording is important that we set the tone as political leaders.”

PAUL:

And really I'm told that there are other Liberals — not only the Nationals — who weren’t too happy with Peter Dutton's pursuing this line of argument, at least every other day.

RUBY:

And so how would you say, Paul, that this is all reverberating? How is it all landing outside the chambers of Parliament right now? When it comes to the ‘Yes’ campaign, do you get the sense that there is worry or fear, or is there a re-gathering force? Should we expect a reinvigoration of the cause?

PAUL:

Well, we're getting to the business end of the referendum process. This week in the parliament we saw overwhelming support for the enabling legislation. Most of the Liberals joined the crossbench and Labor in the House of Representatives to wave the enabling legislation through. The Nationals, well they all voted against it. There's a bit of technicality here. By doing that, they attract, then, the ability to write the official ‘No’ campaign pamphlet, as we've been saying. But there are some Labor high-flyers that are a bit worried about the way the ‘Yes’ campaign, to date, has been mounted. They're also a little bit worried that while there's no doubt that Albanese has passion and conviction, it's a bit like the British political sitcom you might remember, ‘Yes, Minister’, where whenever the senior public servant told the Prime Minister that he was being courageous, what he was also telling him was that this was foolhardy and doomed to failure. Well, Albanese, well, he'll have none of it. In fact, talking to one of Albanese's closest confidants, he's fuming at what he calls ‘the hand ringers and the bedwetters’. He told me that people do want Prime Ministers that are leaders of conviction. And that's exactly what they're getting in Albanese, a Prime Minister with conviction, prepared to lead. And Ruby, you might remember that John Howard, one of our longest serving prime ministers, he himself used to put down his success, in no small way, to the perception that he too, was a leader that stood by his convictions.

And we saw that there was no stepping back from Albanese or the Government in Parliament this week. The Albanese Government rejected a suggestion from Julian Leeser, a Liberal who supports the ‘Yes’ vote, but thought that changing the formula, which in fact could weaken the Voice, may win more conservatives. Well, they rejected that and Albanese is standing by the undertaking that he gave to the dying Aboriginal leader Yunupingu, that he would get this done.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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Archival tape – Mark McGowan:

“All right. Thank you so much for coming on such short notice. Today, I'm announcing that I'll be stepping down as premier and as member for Rockingham. I was elected as premier of Western Australia in March 2017, more than six years ago now.”

RUBY:

Paul, this week the highly popular Labor Premier of Western Australia, resigned. It was a huge surprise, particularly given his notoriously high approval ratings. So what impact does his resignation have on the federal party and on the Prime Minister?

Archival tape – Mark McGowan:

“But the truth is I'm tired, extremely tired. In fact, I'm exhausted. The role of political leadership doesn't stop. It's relentless.”

PAUL:

Well, it's a very good question. And a lot of people are wondering about it because there is no doubt that the enduringly popular, and dominant state premier, you might remember, McGowan as Australia's most popular state premier, and at one stage had 90% approval in that state. And Albanese and Federal Labor leveraged off this popularity in Western Australia, to win four seats and majority government there. Well, in caucus on Tuesday, Albanese brushed aside concerns that the sudden resignation of the Premier would be a blow for federal Labor. While nobody has any doubts, as I was saying about the role McGowan did play in the federal election campaign, Labor launched in Perth, and Albanese shared the platform, the stage, with McGowan. And he told Perth radio that he's already visited WA 12 times. That's more than Morrison ever managed when he was Prime Minister. He's held a cabinet meeting there, and he'll hold another one. And in caucus, Albanese says that Labor's going to try and win two more marginal seats from the Liberals at the next federal election.

RUBY:

And McGowan's time, it wasn't without controversy. His popularity really allowed him to push through a lot of things — like massive new gas developments— without a lot of public scrutiny. So as he leaves, what happens to WA Labor?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, don't forget that McGowan was, as his successor will be, the premier of Western Australia. You know, the big resource state. And I'm sure that his successor, who is certainly going to be Roger Cook, who was the Deputy Premier.

Archival tape – Roger Cook:

“The economic transition happening on the strip is at the epicentre of WA's shift to renewable energy. I want this transition to renewable energy to be good for the environment, but also to be good for the economy, and for WA jobs.”

PAUL:

They see that fossil fuels have a future in the transition to renewables, and McGowan, and I'm sure the government of Cook, they will continue to develop renewable energy and a hydrogen industry in Western Australia.

Archival tape – Roger Cook:

“I'm ready to lead. I'm ready to be Premier. I'm born and bred Western Australian. This is the state where I've lived my entire life. It is where I've raised my children. I've devoted my life to serving this state, to do everything possible to ensure WA is prosperous for everyone.”

PAUL:

And I was speaking to a WA Labor strategist, who in fact says that Cook is closer to Albanese in policy agenda terms, and he sees the transition to a new Premier as a positive rather than a negative for Federal Labor.

RUBY:

And just finally, Paul, this week has also seen some particularly interesting and combative exchanges in Senate estimates. The Greens, in particular, have been hammering bureaucrats over the relationship of government departments with PwC, and rent, and HECS. So just how impactful do you think that questioning has been, and does it raise issues that this Labor government is going to have to respond to?

PAUL:

Well there’s a couple of issues there, Ruby. On the issue of PwC, there's no doubt the work done by the Financial Review in revealing the way in which the Australian Government's trust on tax reform was betrayed by this major accounting firm, was built on by the work of two very effective senators, Labor's Deb O'Neill and The Greens’ Barbara Pocock. PoCock is an interesting person. She's got a Ph.D., she's an economist, and she used to work for the Reserve Bank. Well, she took the gloves off in questioning the public servants from Treasury and Finance. Both of these women have been relentless pursuing PwC. On the other issue, it's The Greens that have been running hardest on the raising of student loans. There'll be a 7% rise in the cost of repaying student loans, thanks to indexation. They've been urging the Government to freeze this, to offer some relief, and so far the Government is resisting it.

There is some political danger in that, because as we know, that while younger — particularly educated — Australians tend to support the Greens, they also tend to support Labor. So Labor, you would think, wouldn't want to antagonise this very important voting demographic.

I think it was Malcolm Fraser, as Prime Minister, all those years ago that said “life wasn't meant to be easy”. And I think as the Albanese Government is finding it's not all that easy being in government.

RUBY:

Paul, thank you so much for your time.

PAUL:

Well, thank you, Ruby. Bye.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

News reports that Ben Roberts-Smith was a war criminal and a bully, who was involved in the killing of unarmed Afghan civilians, were proven by substantial evidence, according to a judgement handed down by Justice Anthony Besanko.

The judgement dismissed the three defamation actions against Nine Newspapers, finding the papers have proven the truth of most of the defamatory imputations.

Archival tape – Nick McKenzie:

“Now’s the time for the nation and the defence force to absorb what the judge has found, the full findings will be released in due course. What is clear is Ben Roberts-Smith is liar”

RUBY:

Investigative reporter Nick McKenzie, who was named in the action by Ben Roberts-Smith, alongside his colleague Chris Masters, spoke outside court yesterday, calling the verdict a small measure of justice for Afghan civilians.

Archival tape – Nick McKenzie:

“There’s justice for the Afghan villagers who stood up in court, like the SAS soldiers who implicated Ben Roberts-Smith in war crimes. The Afghan villagers who stood up in court on Ben Roberts-Smith instructions were mocked, belittled by Ben Roberts Smith’s counsel, they too have been found to have spoken the truth.”

RUBY:

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper.

It’s produced by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon, Zoltan Fecso, Cheyne Anderson,
Yeo Choong, and Chris Dengate.

Our technical producer is Atticus Bastow. Our editor is Scott Mitchell.

Sarah McVeigh is our head of audio. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Mixing by Andy Elston, Travis Evans, and Atticus Bastow.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you next week

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