Indigenous voice the first step, treaty down the road, says Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese says enshrining a voice to parliament would be a step towards a longer-term ambition of striking treaties between governments and Indigenous groups.

Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Anthony Albanese says enshrining a voice to parliament would be a step towards a longer-term ambition of striking treaties between governments and Indigenous groups, but the Greens’ push for treaty in this term of parliament is “ambitious”.

The Prime Minister said a voice would play a role in advising on the way forward to progress treaty negotiations through a Makarrata commission.

“Part of having a voice to parliament is to inform the processes as well, about Makarrata, about truth-telling, about treaty,” he said. “In terms of getting the processes right, if people think that you can achieve treaty in this term of parliament, I’d say that is ambitious.

“What you can achieve in this parliament is a step forward … it would be an important step forward for our nation if we achieve that, and will be, I think, a very positive moment for the nation.”

The Greens are yet to back a voice referendum and are calling for the immediate commencement of a treaty process.

At the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Greens leader Adam Bandt said there was “absolutely no reason that we can’t commence process towards truth-telling and treaty now”.

“When we go into those discussions with the government about (a) proposal for (a) voice, we want to see a number of things. We want to see progress towards truth-telling and treaty start in this parliament,” he said. “We want to see a start down the road of truth-telling and treaty. We want to see the recommendations from the previous royal commission report into black deaths in custody and the Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generations implemented.

“It’s time to take action on that and do that.”

Mr Albanese said he respected people having different views on the voice and he wanted to start a national conversation.

Amid calls for more detail on how the voice body would function, he signalled the government would consider a proposed model from a report overseen by Indigenous academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma.

“There will be discussion about the extensive work of Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, extensive debate, about what a voice to parliament might look like in terms of regional structures and a particular model being put forward by them that envisages a nat­ional model but also with equal representation of male and female representatives.”

In The Australian on Wednesday, former prime minister Tony Abbott outlined opposition to the voice, saying it would have “some­thing approaching a veto” on federal government decisions.

Industry Minister Ed Husic said he was concerned that current Liberal MPs might hold similar views to Mr Abbott.

“The Prime Minister said on the weekend … that the voice is not about a third chamber,” Mr Husic told the ABC.

“It’s not about a rolling veto. It is not about a blank cheque. And Tony Abbott read that, presumably, and ignored it.”