Wyatt’s home truths on reform

Ben Wyatt has offered a clear-eyed view of what is needed to move on from the defeat of the voice to parliament at the 2023 referendum. The former West Australian Labor treasurer – the first Indigenous treasurer in the nation – highlights the point that has been a touchstone of this newspaper’s long involvement and interest in what remains perhaps Australia’s most difficult and enduring political and social challenge. Put simply, economic empowerment through greater involvement and shared responsibility is the key to improving Indigenous outcomes in a way that can secure mainstream community support. The need to set a new course has become urgent.

As Mr Wyatt writes on Saturday, the comprehensive rejection of the referendum, and by implication the Uluru Statement from the Heart, has left the federal government bureaucracy frozen and uncertain, and the national Aboriginal leadership disappointed, angry, bitter and confused. Left untended, the referendum result will allow Indigenous concerns to slip from public consciousness. Mr Wyatt may well be correct in his summation that voice, treaty and truth will not be part of the national Aboriginal affairs policy development in the coming decade, an unavoidable consequence of the Albanese government’s mishandled referendum process. The danger is that disappointment among Indigenous groups and uninterest by other political extremes will make progress on closing the gap and improving social cohesion more difficult. As Mr Wyatt writes, Aboriginal policy is perhaps the area of policy development most dependent on a strong and sustained centre. The situation is made more difficult by the fact the worst examples of disadvantage are to be found in areas that are located far from the mainstream experience. Among Mr Wyatt’s more controversial suggestions is for the Coalition of Peaks to be reinforced as a service delivery agency. The bigger challenge is to break the welfare mindset of existing bureaucratic structures and rebuild Indigenous communities. Grasping the truth, articulated by Mr Wyatt, that you can’t have a successful community without opportunity, jobs and aspiration is vital.

Voice advocate Megan Davis agrees that economic development is key to community uplift but says we must restrain claims that we are on the verge of some grand economic vision. She is right to observe that bureaucracies outwardly commit to frameworks while internally resisting real change. But this is all the more reason to try harder. Mr Wyatt equates the challenge with the capacity-building efforts being undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Pacific.

Modernising agreements and remodelling agencies to encourage sustainable economies is something that would find widespread public support. To do so will involve sacrificing some of the holy cows of those on the left of politics who have not been able to embrace a rights-and-responsibilities agenda. But the referendum outcome must be harnessed to energise a new approach that draws its strength from the centre ground. This is where the future of Indigenous policy must be forged.