Loss of Voice chance Ken Wyatt’s main regret

Ken Wyatt has labelled his failure to legislate an Indigenous Voice as the main regret of his political career.

Ken Wyatt says he is disappointed by his inability to deliver a formal Voice. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Ken Wyatt has labelled his failure to legislate an Indigenous Voice as the main regret of his political career.

In his first public appearance since he lost his seat at the May election, the former minister for Indigenous Australians told the WA Mining Club that while his successful efforts to free the Aboriginal flag from copyright were a highlight of his time in office, he was disappointed by his inability to deliver a formal Voice.

“We had the chance to do it but we didn’t, so that is a regret,” he said.

Since his defeat, Mr Wyatt has vowed to support the proposed referendum for an Indigenous Voice to parliament but has warned Labor of the risks of trying to push the issue through without first building a broader consensus.

Speaking to The Australian after his Mining Club appearance, Mr Wyatt blamed Covid for his inability to deliver the Voice during his time in parliament.

The pandemic, he said, had made it difficult to properly engage on the issue with Indigenous communities across Australia.

“(New Indigenous Australians Minister) Linda Burney and (Labor senator) Patrick Dodson and the others who travelled from Port Hedland to Uluru, when they went into communities, communities hadn’t heard about the Voice,” he said.

“Their concern was water, education, access to health, and other matters that had to do with daily living. That reinforced the need to make sure that we had the discussion at those community levels.”

He said he believed the concept of an Indigenous Voice that would advise parliament on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had broad conceptual support across the community, although he said there was a rump of the population that would always be opposed to the idea.

The former minister compared the proposed function of the Voice to the likes of influential lobby groups such as the Australian Medical Association and the National Farmers Federation, which have long helped shape political decisions in their areas of focus.

“But when it comes to an Indigenous Voice, we seem to have a rump of people who think this is a special provision that’s going to advantage them,” he said.

“What I would love to see them do is go and look at the levels of disparity in an actual community. Look at the challenges that kids face and families face on a daily basis. Then tell me that they shouldn’t have a voice.”

Mr Wyatt also revealed how some of his former Liberal colleagues had expressed their regret to him over their decisions to walk out on then-prime minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations in 2008.