‘Stop kicking this down the road’: Labor wants Indigenous recognition referendum

The federal opposition has used the anniversary of Parliament’s apology to the stolen generation to push for a referendum on constitutional recognition to be held before the next election.

Labor’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Linda Burney told Federal Parliament on Monday the “healing power of telling the truth” was within reach and a national vote on the issue could succeed if it had the support of First Nations leaders and major political parties.

Labor’s Pat Dodson, Anthony Albanese and Linda Burney on their way to attend a ministerial statement to mark the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The federal government had committed to a referendum during this term of parliament but plans were derailed last year, as well as several other election commitments, by the emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Burney said Labor remained committed to enshrining The Voice into the constitution, in line with the Uluru statement, coupled with a Makarrata Commission to achieve agreement on appropriate measures towards reconciliation.

“I do not care who gets the credit, I really don’t,” Ms Burney told the House of Representatives. “I just want to see it done”.

She said if the major political parties offered an endorsement to a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament she had “no doubt a referendum will succeed”.

Labor’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Linda Burney says a referendum on constitutional recognition can succeed.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“There is time to get this done if we work together and with the community,” Ms Burney said.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said Labor would extend “the heart” and “the hand” of bipartisanship in support of a referendum.

He warned the federal government could not afford to keep “kicking this down the road”.

A vote on constitutional recognition, despite being a Coalition policy at every election since 2007, remains a divisive topic within the party room and opposed by a strong conservative flank of MPs.

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt says the federal government is committed to working with First Nations people.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, who has said a referendum on constitutional recognition was “too important to fail”, told Parliament the government was committed to working in “genuine partnership” with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

“We know that the best outcomes occur when governments and Indigenous Australians work together,” he said.

He said that included the new national Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Voice co-design process and ongoing work to ensure the economic recovery provided opportunity for Indigenous Australians through skills, jobs and wealth creation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison used the 13th anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s national apology in 2008 on Monday to announce the annual reporting of Close the Gap figures, which traditionally coincided with the day, would change under a new national agreement.

The figures, complete with state and local government results in bridging the gap in social and economic disadvantage between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, will now be released annually in the Spring sittings of Parliament.

Mr Morrison, who was last month lambasted for saying January 26 “wasn’t a particularly flash day” for British convicts, said the events of the past lingered as the nation “tried to make sense of their past to reconcile it”.

“Children forcibly removed from parent. Mother is chasing after police cars that had taken their children. Siblings separated. Adoptions without consent. Forced servitude. Welfare institutions devoid of all love or care,” Mr Morrison told Parliament.

“Parents searching for lost children. Grief, trauma, endless pain that cascaded through generations.”

Mr Morrison echoed the words of Mr Rudd to say “I am sorry, truly sorry”.

He said so much had been tried to improve the livelihoods of Indigenous Australians but most of the past efforts were based “more on telling than listening”.

“Mostly, it was because we were perpetuating the very idea that has plagued our country for so long, that we knew better.

He said the new efforts would be built on “mutual trust, respect and dignity”.

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