Commonwealth has $22m waiting for Makarrata commission

The Commonwealth department responsible for carrying out Labor’s election commitments in Indigenous affairs has confirmed more than $20 million sits in reserve to prepare a Makarrata commission.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price during the Cross-Portfolio Indigenous Matters Senate estimates at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

The Commonwealth department responsible for carrying out Labor’s election commitments in Indigenous affairs has confirmed more than $20 million sits in reserve to prepare a Makarrata commission but that no work is being done to set up the treaty-making body.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe described a lack of action on Makarrata as a broken promise during an at-times testy hearing in senate estimates on Friday.

“Going back to Makarrata and the broken promise from the minister and the Prime Minister ... of the $27.2m that was committed to Makarrata at the election, 21.9m was held in contingency reserve is that right? Does that still exist?” Senator Thorpe said in an exchange with senior public servants from the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

Simon Gordon, who works for NIAA, told Senator Thorpe: “There has been no changes made to that funding ... it is still there for the purpose it was put aside for.”

Senator Thorpe told the hearing she was aware of rumours that the NIAA had been instructed to “stop pause or scale back preparatory work on the Makarrata”.

Senator Lidia Thorpe. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said she had not heard that rumour. The government was in the process of listening to Aboriginal communities about next steps.

“We certainly intended with our preparation for the referendum to be able to pursue voice, treaty, truth and it included looking at Makarrata which is what we have budgeted for,” Senator McCarthy said in senate estimates.

“What we are doing now obviously with the unsuccessful outcome is going back out to communities and seeing where people are at in terms of moving forward on truth telling and treaty.”

Labor came to power in 2022 pledging a commitment to the three elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – an Indigenous voice, treaty and truth.

Makarrata is the second tranche of the Uluru Statement and is intended to oversee agreement making and truth telling projects.

However, Anthony Albanese’s statement in parliament on Tuesday that states were doing the work on treaties prompted concern that his government was walking away from it.

On Friday Uluru Dialogue co-chair Megan Davis wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Let’s be super factual, the govt (ALP) took the Makarrata Commission to a federal election. It was policy. It was costed. They also funded it in the first budget. The referendum vote was on a constitutional Voice. It wasn’t a vote on Uluṟu Statement, Treaty or Truth-telling.”

The questions about Makarrata in senate estimates come after former Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt warned Labor against pursuing a Makarrata Commission to oversee truth telling because this would further “antagonise” Australians and stoke division, following the failure of the voice referendum.

The first federal Aboriginal cabinet minister said embedding truth telling in school curriculums – as Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney suggested on Wednesday – would not work in isolation as a means of helping all citizens understand the nation’s history before and since settlement.

“School curriculums alone will not do it,” Mr Wyatt said.

“I wouldn’t go with a Makarrata Commission, not based on the African model. Because in the face of the No vote you don’t want to antagonise. I think the Prime Minister has lost a lot of kudos and ground on the voice failing. His leadership has to have a question mark over it.”