Ken Wyatt told to recognise this: we want a voice

Supporters of a constitutionally enshrined indigenous “voice” to parliament believe it remains achievable.

Noongar man David Collardt: ‘Symbolism ain’t going to cut it.’ Picture: Colin Murty.

Supporters of a constitutionally enshrined indigenous “voice” to parliament believe it remains achievable, even after Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt explicitly rejected it last week.

Mr Wyatt’s announcement that Australians would go to a referendum on constitutional recognition only — and there would be no referendum question on a voice — was his first explicit rejection of a key element of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

In the Noongar world that nurtured and encouraged Mr Wyatt, there is pride, sympathy and bitter disappointment about his first eventful months as Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Mr Wyatt created high hopes in July when he announced that Australians would go to a referendum on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people within three years, effectively matching Labor’s election pledge. Last week, however, he denied the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s call for that recognition to include an indigenous voice to parliament enshrined in the Constitution.

Noongar man David Collard, who went to the Uluru summit as a Perth representative, is among Australians who see recognition and a voice as inseparable.

“The appointment of Ken was a win,” Mr Collard said.

“Prime Minister Scott Morrison is leading the team on this, and his minister has to maintain party policy

“As a fellow Noongar man, he’s one of our own and we do have sympathy for him. We are going to try to support him to change the way the PM views this and the Liberal Party policy. (But) symbolism ain’t going to cut it.”

Mr Collard grew up with Mr Wyatt in the West Australian wheatbelt. His father worked with Mr Wyatt’s father on a railway gang and they have known each other for more than 50 years. “I’ve always been there for Ken if he needed my support,” he said. “(But) we are very disappointed.”

Mr Wyatt’s announcement came after weeks of urging pragmatism about the referendum. Australians are conservative, Mr Wyatt cautioned. His rhetoric shifted further from a constitutionally enshrined voice and then, on Thursday last week, he took it off the table altogether.

“I want to be very clear,” Mr Wyatt said at the Vincent Lingiari lecture at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory. “The question we put to the Australian people will not result in what some desire, and that is an enshrined voice to the parliament.

“These two matters, whilst ­related, need to be treated separately. This (referendum) is about ­recognising indigenous Australians on our birth certificate.”

Mr Collard said Uluru supporters would not give up.

“I don’t think a constitutionally-enshrined voice is dead I think it’s minister Wyatt’s decision to not listen to what Aboriginal people at the Uluru summit unanimously agreed to.,” Mr Collard said.

“It’s not just Aboriginal people who want this, it’s also corporate Australia and a big cross-section of the Australian public.”

The call for a constitutionally enshrined voice grew out of a series of dialogues across Australia, culminating in the Uluru statement. It has the support of BHP, Rio Tinto and Woolworths.

Mr Wyatt has never publicly said he backed a constitutionally ­enshrined voice, but many believed he supported it when he and Mr Collard were photographed together at an Australia Day event this year wearing T-shirts with the words “We support the Uluru Statement”.

When asked in July about ­options for the voice, Mr Wyatt said: “I want to … get the best possible model and the best possible set of words for the Constitution”.