No vote an endorsement of bad spending, Rio Tinto director Ben Wyatt says

Former WA Indigenous affairs minister Ben Wyatt says a No vote will give the green light to ‘further misuse of billions in taxpayer money’.

Rio Tinto director Ben Wyatt.

Rio Tinto director Ben Wyatt says a No vote in the voice referendum is an endorsement of “further misuse and bad spend of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money”.

Mr Wyatt is the former West Australian treasurer and Indigenous affairs minister in the McGowan Labor government who relied on an Indigenous advisory body to move thousands of vulnerable Indigenous people to the safety of remote communities at the beginning of the global pandemic.

Speaking at a voice panel in Perth on Wednesday night, Mr Wyatt said every state government had implemented some form of an Indigenous voice because “ultimately the challenge for governments when it comes to developing policy is ‘who do you speak to?’

“WA and Queensland – the Native Title states – could speak to traditional owner groups recognised in the Native Title process as the rightful representatives for certain areas.

“(The existence of Native Title groups) gives you a capacity to speak to a recognised, credible Aboriginal group when it comes to developing policy,” he said.

“But ultimately, even that, when it came to statewide policy needed a much larger input.”

Mr Wyatt supports the call for an Indigenous voice to the Federal parliament and the executive government because “if you speak to people in which you are trying to get a policy outcome you always get that better outcome”.

“Aboriginal people always wear the consequence of failed policy but don’t have the capacity to influence the policy development,” he said.

“If Aboriginal people are going to wear the responsibility then give us the opportunity to be involved.”

Mr Wyatt, an Aboriginal man, asked if anyone was satisfied with the results of Commonwealth spending in Indigenous affairs since the 1967 referendum.

“That is one thing I can always get a consensus on – whether you are a committed yes voter, an undecided voter a committed no voter everyone can agree on that point,” he said.

“So if you accept that you have to accept that we need to do something differently. And the best way to do that is involve Aboriginal people.

“And there is no neutral position on this. If you vote yes, you are voting to say we can no longer accept the failure of Aboriginal policy development and implementation in Australia.

“If you vote no, that is not a neutral position, you are endorsing a status quo that has failed, and you‘re endorsing further, misuse and bad spend of billions of dollars of taxpayers money.”