Labor attaches strings to Indigenous voice referendum vow

Labor will not hold a referendum on an Indigenous ‘voice to parliament’’ in its first term in office unless it is confident of securing a victory.

Linda Burney says the 250 Indigenous representatives who ­formulated the idea for a constitutionally enshrined voice would be recalled under a Labor government to provide input on a final model. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Labor will not hold a referendum on an Indigenous “voice to parliament’’ in its first term in office unless it is confident of securing a victory.

Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney told The Australian Labor will take a “voice to parliament” to a referendum before creating the Indigenous advisory body in legislation.

She said an Albanese government would likely reconvene delegates from the First Nations National Constitutional Convention, which endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, within the first year of a Labor government.

The 250 Indigenous representatives who formulated the idea for a constitutionally enshrined voice would be asked to provide input on a final model that would be taken to the public.

Ms Burney said the aspiration was to hold a referendum within the first term of government. But she warned that the ambition outlined in the Uluru Statement may never eventuate if it was rejected in a referendum.

“The logic has always been in the first term of a Labor government, but you don’t have a referendum if you don’t think you are going to win it,” Ms Burney said.

“I think it will be held in the first term, personally. But we have always said that we will have a referendum when we believe it is most winnable. If a referendum is lost then the ¬momentum would be very difficult to sustain.”

Ms Burney said the “preference” would be to receive bipartisan support for the “yes” case, but “if that is not forthcoming then that is not a reason to not have a referendum”.

She said a Labor government would “definitely” create a Makarrata commission in its first term, which would oversee treaty making. The Labor position is in line with that of Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, who argued the body – which would advise parliament on policies impacting Indigenous people – should not be created in legislation before it is enshrined in the Constitution.

Other Indigenous leaders, including academics Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, argued a voice could first be legislated and act as a functioning body before asking the public to protect it in the Constitution.

Scott Morrison has ruled out supporting a constitutionally ¬enshrined voice while he is prime minister. The government is instead proposing a “voice to government” that would begin with the creation of 35 local and regional voice groups as a foundation of a national voice.

In 2020, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said it was his “aspiration” to create a ¬national voice through legislation before the 2022 election. On Tuesday, Mr Wyatt said the government had committed nearly $32m to create local and regional voices. He would not provide a timeline on when a national body would be created by the Morrison government.

“The funding will enable more detailed co-design of implementation requirements for each jurisdiction, in collaboration with states and territories and Indigenous Australians,” Mr Wyatt said.

“Once that is complete, communities will start forming local and regional voice bodies. Future funding will be determined by the specific approaches developed during the establishment process and will be part of budget considerations going forward.

“It’s important to get this right. And, for the Indigenous voice to work, it must have a strong foundation from the ground up.”

He said the government ¬remained committed to recognising Indigneous Australians in the Constitution “once a consensus is reached and at a time it has the best chance of success”.

Ms Burney said, in finalising a model for the voice, Labor would build on the work done over the past decade, including the proposal outlined in the government’s co-design report led by Professor Langton and Professor Calma.

“There is a lot of work that you have to do to get ready for a referendum, she said. “But much of that work, in my view, has been done.

“We have been talking about this since 2017, so it is not like I will be dumping new stuff on people.”

She said a constitutionally enshrined voice would be a “massive reform”. “It means that First Nations people are finally recognised in the nation’s birth certificate, as Tony Abbott calls it,” she said.