Anthony Albanese’s new Indigenous focus ‘safe and disappointing’, say leaders

Aboriginal leaders have warned Anthony Albanese risks ‘misleading’ the public if he walks away from establishing a Makarrata Commission, with the federal government facing criticism it is ‘divided’ and lacks ‘political will’.

Anthony Albanese surrounded by attendees at the 2024 Garma Festival. Picture: Peter Eve / YYF

Aboriginal leaders have warned Anthony Albanese risks “misleading” the public if he walks away from establishing a Makarrata Commission, with the federal government facing criticism it is “divided” and lacks the “political will” necessary to establish a clear platform on Indigenous affairs after its voice referendum failure.

Former human rights commissioner Mick Gooda said the government needed to urgently clarify what it stood for, amid confusion about whether the Prime Minister was ruling out establishing a Makarrata Commission.

Mr Albanese at the weekend declared a federal body to oversee truth and treaty was “not what we have proposed”, arguing he was upholding the spirit of the word Makarrata in pursuing reconciliation.

But new Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy on Monday said the government had not walked away from its pre-election commitment to establish a Makarrata Commission, which was a key plank of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Mr Gooda said the government was lacking political will following the failure of the voice referendum.

“They’ve got to lay a platform somewhere to say ‘this is what we stand for’. All they’ve got going is this Close the Gap stuff and that’s not going really well,” he said.

A Closing the Gap report released last week showed key indicators such as Indigenous incarcera-tion rates, suicide rates and the rate of children in out-of-home care had all increased in the past six months.

Mr Gooda said there was a sense of “chaos” in Indigenous affairs, with peak bodies and advocates such as himself seeking to continue with initiatives to improve the lives of First Nations people “in spite of” the lack of clarity at the national level.

Former voice campaigner Sean Gordon said he was disappointed with Mr Albanese’s speech at the Garma Festival, which focused on economic empowerment and jobs for Indigenous Australians.

Mr Gordon said Mr Albanese’s revamped focus on Indigenous affairs lacked ambition.

“It was a very safe announcement, safe from a political perspective,” he said. “But it was disappointing from my perspective and the community’s perspective.”

Former human rights commissioner Mick Gooda. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Mr Albanese’s comments on Sunday sparked outrage from leaders including Uluru Dialogue co-chair Pat Anderson, who declared Makarrata was not “a vague vibe or series of casual conversations”.

But Senator McCarthy urged “everyone to just calm down” and on Monday made the assurance that the government had not moved away from its commitment to the Uluru Statement, which calls for voice, treaty and truth.

“The Prime Minister made that commitment on election night,” she told ABC on Monday.

“I’m saying that the interpretation of what the Prime Minister said has been taken completely further than what it was meant to.”

Senator McCarthy’s intervention was seized on by Peter Dutton, who said it was clear there was “a huge split or divide between the newly minted Indigenous Affairs Minister and the Prime Minister”.

Indigenous leaders who advocated for the voice have told The Australian they could not abandon the remaining elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart because the document was the will of their people.

Other leaders in Indigenous affairs said it was clear Mr Albanese had “over-promised” at the 2022 election and was now struggling to recover from the voice failure.

Mr Gordon lashed the government for “trying to step away” from funding more local and regional voice mechanisms across the country, not only the Empowered Communities model.

“I say this as the person who led Empowered Communities for nine years: how is it that a select group of regions in the country have the opportunity to participate in a regional voice and local voice structure, yet other communities are denied that opportunity?” he said.

“Labor is already investing in establishing local and regional voices.

“To try to step away from that and not allow other communities to enter into that space, it’s just the government trying to play politics and not accept it is doing this work and is funding this work already.”

One of the nation’s most respected Indigenous rights campaigners and voice architect, Tom Calma, said both treaty and truth-telling were “long overdue” and urged for clarity from the federal government.

“There is a validity in saying states and territories are progressing on these matters, and so they should, but I think the Commonwealth also has a significant responsibility and they need to identify how they’re going about it,” he said.

“Is it going to be a co-ordinated approach or not?”

Professor Calma said he was “not sure” who the government was consulting with other than the Coalition of Peaks, which did not encompass all Indigenous Australians.

“We’ve just got to make sure that, you know, the whole population is being considered,” he said.

He warned Labor needed to be “very conscious” of not “misleading the” public as the Mr Dutton had done when it came to Indigenous affairs.

“There needs to be some clarity. What we don’t want is (what happened) with the Opposition Leader during the referendum, saying if the referendum is lost he’s holding another one. Then it was lost, he said no that’s off the table,” Professor Calma said.

“Labor needs to be very conscious of that sort of misleading of the population.”

The Opposition Leader accused Mr Albanese of creating division after his “confusing” stance on the Makarrata Commission, saying the issue had become “the Voice 2.0”.