Leadership still missing in action

There is an uncomfortable coincidence in the fact the one-year anniversary of the failed voice to parliament referendum has coincided with a slide in support for the Albanese government to a post-election low. For the first time since the 2022 election, the Coalition rates higher than Labor on a two-party-preferred basis, but neither side can claim a ringing endorsement from voters.

Labor spent much of its first year in office campaigning for an Indigenous voice, and the party’s standing and Anthony Albanese’s personal leadership credentials have not recovered from the overwhelming majority defeat the referendum received. It is reasonable to expect the first anniversary of the loss to be felt keenly by those who had so much riding on it, both Yes and No. The depth of hurt is all the more reason, not less, that the Prime Minister acknowledge both the defeat and the role he played in it.

Instead, Mr Albanese issued no formal statement to mark the 12-month anniversary of the referendum. Speaking on the campaign trail for the Queensland state election, Mr Albanese instead said it had been a disappointing result. “I accepted the gracious invitation of Indigenous Australians that they made in 2017 – a request to walk with them in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. They determined in 2017 that they wanted a constitutionally recognised voice because of their experience where ATSIC and previous bodies had been abolished with the stroke of a pen.”

This may be so, but where leadership was required to build a bridge to community acceptance, Mr Albanese failed to take up the challenge. Sean Gordon, a member of the Prime Minister’s referendum working group and a Liberals for Yes co-convener, said the government had “run away” from the issue. Unfortunately, the issue of Indigenous disadvantage has not gone away. Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price used the anniversary of the failed referendum to repeat her pledge that under a Coalition government there would be a royal commission into sexual abuse of Indigenous children.

Mr Albanese must at least take from the referendum the lessons of what went wrong and ensure the same mistakes are not repeated. This extends beyond Indigenous affairs to other areas including immigration and world affairs, where the federal government seems determined to remain doggedly fixed on the minority views of voters in inner-city and Green electorates rather than the mainstream views of those it is supposed to represent.