Ken Wyatt hits back at ‘influencers’
Ken Wyatt says he will not be derailed by the loudest voices over the new indigenous advisory body.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt says he will not be derailed by the loudest voices as he prepares to unveil a plan to involve all indigenous people in designing how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will advise government and parliament, and how governments can communicate with them.
READ MORE: Path forward on indigenous recognition won’t be defined by loudest voices
In a rebuttal to critics of his handling of the landmark 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, Mr Wyatt has labelled some of the nation’s most prominent indigenous voices “influencers” who need to accept there are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who hold alternative views to theirs about what recognition looks like.
Mr Wyatt is pushing back against Uluru supporters who see a constitutionally enshrined voice as the only form of constitutional recognition worth pursuing.
The Uluru statement calls for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians as well as a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice to parliament. It is the culmination of consultations with more than 1300 indigenous people around Australia and is supported by some of Australia’s biggest companies, two former chief justices of the High Court and mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto.
“I respect the whole Uluru process,” Mr Wyatt told The Australian. “It gave an opportunity for people to contribute but there are 800,000 Aboriginal people across this nation and I need to make sure I hear their collective voices over a period of time, community by community if I have to, or region by region.”
Mr Wyatt has faced criticism since August when he said in his Lingiari address that when Australians go to a referendum on constitutional recognition in three years, there will not be a question about a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice to parliament.
The same month, 40 of Australia’s most powerful indigenous leaders wrote to Scott Morrison and Mr Wyatt with a proposed and detailed pathway for an indigenous voice to parliament that they said could be enshrined in the Constitution by the end of 2021.
The Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council co-chair Roy Ah-See, land council chiefs from around Australia and leaders working with state governments on treaties in Queensland and Victoria helped to determine the content of the letter.
In comments likely to inflame tensions with some of Australia’s most respected leaders, Mr Wyatt said he would be the minister for all indigenous Australians, “not only for those who have enjoyed the benefit of having their voices heard above others for decades”.
“What you have are influencers or people who influence and certainly I have been part of that group that have been in positions where you hold good jobs and you are able to use your position to influence thinking in certain directions with governments. And governments tend to go back to the same group of people.
“It’s easier and it’s convenient but on the other hand if this is a significant direction pause in resetting an agenda with the Morrison government, then we are very keen on a bottom-up approach.”
Supporters of the Uluru statement consider a referendum that asks Australians only if they wish for indigenous people to be acknowledged in the Constitution as a betrayal of a long process and years of work.
Last year, the joint select committee on constitutional recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, chaired by the Liberals’ Julian Leeser and Labor’s Patrick Dodson, found that “a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice would empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to shape the policy and legislation governing their affairs across the longer term. It would provide a First Nations Voice with the independence and permanence to provide frank advice.”
Mr Wyatt said he remained committed to creating an indigenous voice “from the bottom up” and saw constitutional recognition as separate.
He said he wanted the indigenous voice to be co-designed in a way that gave communities a chance to have their say about how it should work.
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