Loading “I can’t answer for Ken ... Ken made the decision, or someone made the decision, that Ken was not going to be appearing tonight and I’m disappointed Ken was not able to be here.” Burney affirmed Labor’s commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart - “in its entirety, including to the Voice”. She declared: “Our position is very clear at the moment.” In an era when Labor’s old light on the hill has been replaced with a candle in the wind, this is the caveat to watch for: “At the moment.”

In Wyatt’s absence, the role of government defender fell to Liberal MP Julian Leeser - an on-record supporter of the Voice being recognised in the Constitution. He walked an awkward tightrope on Monday night. Jones pressed him on why Wyatt had changed his mind. At the National Press Club in August, “he left the door open and now he’s slammed it shut ... is that the position he had to have?”. Leeser, as deftly as was possible under the circumstances: “I can’t answer that. At the end of the day, the Government’s position is clear. We support the Voice, the Government supports the Voice and the Government supports constitutional recognition. Just not constitutional recognition of the Voice.” Are you clear now, Australia? The question of the night came from audience member Bill Ramage, who warned politicians that the Indigenous community was fed up with the to-and-fro. He took on panellist Jacinta Price, an Indigenous politician who stood for the Liberal Party at the federal election and who opposes the Voice.

Ramage: “Jacinta, the way you talk, that sounds like a Liberal government is standing behind you ... You’re not talking for the rest of the people, I can tell you now.” Panellist Sally Scales agreed: “No more symbolism. Do we want to wait until we’re all dead? And that’s what symbolism will give us.” Jacinta Price responded: “Just because my views are probably different to yours doesn’t mean I can’t think for myself as an Aboriginal woman. I form my own views based on my own lived experience and the conversations I have with Aboriginal people ... there are many Indigenous people who aren’t being heard in this conversation, that they do not agree with a Voice.” Panellist Pat Turner, a legendary figure in Indigenous affairs: “We survived here for 60,000 years before the last 200 and we’ve been devastated more in the last 200-plus than the 60,000 years before that ... we want to have the right to share the power and to make the decisions about the future of our people in our own country.”

Then to the question: just who could bring the nation together in this debate and deliver resolution? Tony Jones: “Can Scott Morrison make this an opportunity to define this prime ministership in a very different way than people expect it might be defined and take a hold of this issue and surprise and drive it himself? Would you like to see him do that?” Julian Leeser thought it important that the solution not be seen to “be owned” by any one person: “The Constitution is a document for all Australians.” Jones: “It would depend entirely on how a PM did this. He could take it as an opportunity to unify the country around this issue ... is this a moment, a window that has opened here? Should the Prime Minister take that opportunity?” Leeser: “I think any political leader who says we will do this, given where we are in this process today, is asking for failure ... we’ve got to let the process run its course.”

Loading Price thought the debate “distracts us from what’s really going on” - issues such as violence and suicide in Indigenous communities. Pat Turner shot back. A distraction? “It hasn't distracted me because we're working very hard to close the gap. And to ensure that Aboriginal voices are at the table in negotiations with government as equals.”