Unity is badly needed on way forward after Indigenous voice to parliament vote

If there was agreement throughout the hard-fought voice referendum campaign, it was that the status quo must not stand and joint purpose was needed to address the many challenges revealed in the failure to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage. Since the referendum results have been tallied, however, signs of co-operation are thin on the ground. With voters showing a clear majority overall and in all states to not support constitutional enshrinement of a voice to parliament, leaders have a responsibility to explain what’s next. Anthony Albanese says time is needed to take stock but he does not have that luxury.

Many people who voted No on Saturday – more than 60 per cent of the adult population – will naturally expect that high-profile advocate Jacinta Nampijinpa Price be afforded respect for how she performed. But she has been left furious by the rejection of demands for a proper review of sexual abuse in remote Indigenous communities. A royal commission into child sexual abuse and an audit into Indigenous spending in remote communities are the two key demands from the Coalition following the referendum. But Peter Dutton and Senator Price have been frustrated in their attempts to have the issues taken seriously.

Senator Price’s motion on a royal commission was voted down in the Senate on Tuesday. An attempt by Mr Dutton to raise the issue in the House of Representatives on Thursday was also defeated. The Prime Minister has rejected the Coalition’s calls as “stunts designed to whip up outrage”. And nearly 100 of Australia’s leading Indigenous figures and organisations have argued the overwhelming factor predicting child maltreatment was already clearly established and that the most effective and immediate action government could take to make children safe and protect their human rights would be to appoint a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s commissioner with the legislated power to investigate and make recommendations.

Warren Mundine said the stance taken by the organisations was disgusting. “What have they got to fear,” Mr Mundine said. “This is the difference between them and us. We want things fixed.”

Whether or not a royal commission is the correct approach is open to debate, something both houses of parliament have now rejected. But greater accountability for the money currently being spent and the outcomes achieved should have bipartisan support. Mr Dutton is correct in saying that without action we will “continue to repeat the same mistakes of the past”.

Mr Albanese is struggling to deal with the referendum result and his part in it. But as a nation, we would be best served if politicians were able to discover a sense of agreement on how to move forward. The signs of division are growing. As editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote on Wednesday, the one certainty is that Aboriginal leadership is going to be more fragmented and divided. As governments, state and federal, reconsider their approach to treaty negotiations, calls for more extreme measures are rising on the activist fringe. On the other side, as Kelly notes, the moral victory won by Senator Price and Mr Mundine is the start, not the end, of a new chapter of Indigenous reassessment. Calls by Tony Abbott to reconsider flying the Indigenous flag and to end welcome to country ceremonies are part of this. Mr Albanese’s ill-conceived referendum campaign has led to division that will be difficult to contain.