Malarndirri McCarthy’s Voice anniversary message to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: ‘Let’s sit down’

Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy is urging her opposition counterpart, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, to sit down with her one year after the defeat of the voice referendum and restart the reconciliation process.

Indigenous Affairs Minister ­Malarndirri McCarthy and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Indigenous Affairs Minister ­Malarndirri McCarthy is urging opposition counterpart ­Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to sit down with her one year after the defeat of the voice referendum and restart the reconciliation process.

In an impassioned plea on the anniversary of the referendum that divided the nation and Indigenous leadership, Senator McCarthy has vowed to find practical ways of closing the gap.

But after Senator Nampijinpa Price on Saturday lashed Labor’s failure to set out a clear vision for improving Aboriginal lives in the wake of the defeat of the voice, the Indigenous Australians Minister claimed the Coalition rising star failed to accept numerous invitations to meet with her and discuss the Closing The Gap ­National Agreement to reduce disparity by 2031.

Senator McCarthy writes in The Australian on Monday: “If we want to end this disadvantage once and for all, we need to work differently.

“I remain proud that the Albanese government delivered on Anthony Albanese’s election night commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and our promise to First Nations ­people to take the voice to a referendum.”

Senator McCarthy, who took over from Linda Burney in July, said her focus was on improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians across health, education, jobs, housing and justice. She said on Sunday she still wanted to sit down with Senator Nampijinpa Price and avoid the weaponisation of Aboriginal policy.

“I offered to meet with all parliamentarians to discuss the National Agreement on Closing The Gap. I have already had one session with senators and MPs, and intend to have another in the next sittings,“ she told The Australian.

“Sadly, Senator Nampijinpa Price did not take up that invitation or several other follow-up offers to meet. The invitation stands.”

Senator Nampijinpa Price on Sunday challenged the minister’s assertions that she was not willing to sit down with her.

“The minister invited me to a meeting in late August; however, that invitation was given with less than 24 hours’ notice and was proposed at a time that I was dealing with a family death and was therefore unable to attend,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

“I last met with the minister on September 9, 2024 … a meeting convened at my request. At that meeting, I brought Arrernte traditional owners to meet with her; however, they left feeling unheard as they continue to call for an inquiry into land councils.

“Any and all meetings held with the minister have resulted in no progress.”

Peter Dutton on Sunday said Anthony Albanese had wasted 18 months and $450m talking down to people but Australians who voted No “saved our country from permanent division”.

“The Prime Minister refuses to accept he got it wrong. He’s still spending your money to establish a Makarrata Commission, and he’s still committed to the Uluru Statement and Treaty,” he said.

“It’s becoming clear that a re-elected Labor government would be a Labor-Greens activist minority government. If that happens, the type of chaos, risk, uncertainty and division our country avoided with the voice would become very real.”

The Uluru Dialogue campaign on Sunday night reflected on the voice defeat and the path forward in a public discussion.

The discussion featured two new, young Indigenous leaders, steeled by the referendum defeat, who firmly believe Australia will one day revisit the question of how to amend the Constitution to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the representation they were denied when the document was drafted.

Allira Davis, left, and Bridget Cama. Picture: Toby Zerna

Bridget Cama and Allira Davis were barely out of their teens when 250 Indigenous delegates in 2017 endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for a voice to parliament. The two met a year later, became friends and built a youth movement that sees the defeat of the voice referendum on October 14 last year as “part of the story, not the end of the story”.

“We learned a lot and there were some really hard moments,” Ms Cama said. “The result was absolutely devastating for all of us, but Allira and me, we were the two youngest in the room on referendum night.

“Some of the senior leaders told us things like ‘this is your first big No, you will be all right’, and that was really powerful.”

The group the pair established – Uluru Youth – had captured the enthusiasm of a generation that believed the voice would be good for the nation. A post-referendum study by the Australian National University found that among Australians aged 18 to 24, the Yes vote was 58.6 per cent. They were more than twice as likely to vote yes as their grandparents’ generation – those 75 and over.

While older Australians emphatically rejected the voice, it is the old guard in the Indigenous rights movement encouraging Ms Cama and Ms Davis to keep going. Alyawarre elder Pat Anderson, co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue, took Ms Cama and Ms Davis aside after the No vote and told them: “This is not over but you have to find another way.”

“That really lifted me up,” Ms Davis said. “We tried really, really hard and I am super proud of our team sticking by us.

“That is the silver lining, that we have all these young people – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – who want to keep walking with us. And overall there are 6.2 million Australians who voted yes.”

Ms Cama and Ms Davis say the work ahead involves maintaining the support of Yes voters – research held by Uluru Dialogue suggests those people would vote Yes again – and talking to about 10 per cent of those who voted no but were considered reachable.

“I know that throughout polling, 10 per cent of people were not certain and those are the 10 per cent of people we need to talk to,” Ms Davis said.

“That is hopeful when you think about how close Australia would be to gaining a First Nations voice, if that 10 per cent decided yes. It’s not a big margin.”

Ms Cama, 29, has a four-year-old son, is a lawyer and is sure her future is in the movement she helped build. Ms Davis, 27, works full-time for Uluru Youth. She says attacks by trolls during the voice campaign made her determined to not let bitterness in. “I don’t want to be angry. I want to be kind and build unity,” she said.