Wyatt’s plans for recognition tread a fine line

Putting legislation through the parliament without ordinary voters having their say on an issue they feel strongly about has ended in disaster for NSW. Scott Morrison and Ken Wyatt ought to take note, writes Peta Credlin.

On Thursday night, indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt gave a speech in Darwin that’s belled the cat on where the whole issue of an indigenous voice to parliament is headed.

And it should worry every Australian who believes our democracy should not discriminate on the basis of race.

Despite the Uluru Statement from the Heart demanding an indigenous voice to parliament be enshrined in the Australian Constitution and creating, as even Malcolm Turnbull was forced to concede, a ‘third chamber’ that would second-guess laws as they related to indigenous people only, Wyatt said the government would not be putting up a referendum to make this happen.

And on the face of it, those who don’t believe we unite Australians by dividing them on the basis of their skin colour, might take comfort in that statement. But they would be wrong.

Just because the Morrison Government knows a referendum vote on an indigenous voice would fail doesn’t mean it is over. Instead, rather than put the issue to the people, they will now just legislate it through the parliament with the support of Labor.

Be very careful here, Prime Minister.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt during his address to the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Going around the people and putting legislation through the parliament without ordinary voters having their say, on an issue they feel strongly about, is precisely why the NSW Government is in a self-inflicted crisis over abortion laws.

What else was telling last week was Wyatt’s restated support for a Makarratta Commission, another key recommendation of the Uluru statement, for the creation of a body to “supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations’ and truth-telling about our history.” A body to negotiate treaties between Australians, based on race, in other words.

When this whole issue of Makarrata arose, via leaked information post-election that showed the indigenous minister (when he wasn’t even the minister) had already secretly drafted legislation to bring this about, I believed the Prime Minister when he said he had no plans to establish a Makarrata Commission.

Yet on Thursday night following his speech, Ken Wyatt said to my Sky News colleagues, Matt Cunningham in an exclusive interview, “No, no I haven’t ruled that out at all Matt. A commission of some description will exist and certainly I like the terminology around Makarrata.”

You think you’re being snowed here?

I do too.

Originally published as Wyatt’s plans for recognition tread a fine line