Scott Morrison rejects timeline for indigenous referendum

Scott Morrison says he will not be bound by a timeline for holding a referendum to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution.

Scott Morrison in question time on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison says he will not be bound by a timeline for holding a referendum to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution, raising doubts over Ken Wyatt’s push to hold a vote within this term of parliament.

The Prime Minister said he was pursuing the recommendations of the joint select committee on constitutional recognition report, which called for a “voice to parliament”, before deciding on a referendum question.

“I am not going to allow any timetables to prevent the successful achievement of this result,” Mr Morrison said in question time on Wednesday.

“What we will do is continue to pursue the bipartisan recommendations of the joint select committee who put forward those recommendations and put forward a process of co-design as the way forward. That’s what we’re doing. That’s our policy.”

Mr Wyatt, the Indigenous Australians Minister, used a speech at the National Press Club last year to outline his ambition for a referendum vote on constitutional recognition during this term of parliament.

Under the policy, a referendum on constitutional recognition could happen before a voice to parliament is designed. The voice is going through a co-design process that is separate to the referendum process, and the body will not be enshrined in the Constitution.

In The Australian on Wednesday, Mr Wyatt walked away from a timeline he set in January to hold a referendum by mid-next year after a backlash from Coalition colleagues.

He said the commitment was “aspirational”.

“All ministers provide a timeline of aspiration, but we also are bound by a process in which we work very closely with our colleagues and we are all bound by both the party room and cabinet processes,” Mr Wyatt said.

In the Coalition party room on Tuesday, Liberal MPs James McGrath, Dean Smith and Amanda Stoker raised concerns the referendum deadline was announced without consultation with MPs or a model to take to a vote.

With the Closing the Gap ­report handed to parliament on Wednesday, Anthony Albanese said the government should implement the full recommendations from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

“At its most basic level, the ­denial of a constitutionally enshrined voice is a denial of the Australian instinct for a fair go,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Despite all the tests it is put through, the instinct for a fair go remains one of the great defining points of our national character.

“The voice is a modest request that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples be consulted about issues and policies that ­directly affect them.”

Since Kevin Rudd launched the Closing the Gap initiative in 2008, with state and territory backing, early childhood education target levels and year 12 attainment are the only targets on track to be met.