’Nothing to fear from Makaratta’, Anthony Albanese says after Garma boost for voice referendum
Anthony Albanese says there is nothing to fear from a proposed Makarrata commission because any agreement making would be mutual, not imposed.
Anthony Albanese says there is nothing to fear from the second stage of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – a proposed Makarrata commission often referred to as treaty for short – because any agreement making would be mutual, not imposed.
After weeks of trying to separate the voice referendum from a Makaratta Commission, the Prime Minister said no Australian could deny the “struggle” of Indigenous Australians and that the commission would bring people together.
Mr Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon were at the Garma Festival on Friday and Saturday when the campaign for an Indigenous voice got a boost from some of the nation’s most senior cultural authorities.
Land councils from across Australia’s north – from the Kimberley to the NT to Cape York – backed the voice at Garma while the most senior Indigenous leaders from 13 clan groups of northeast Arnhem Land also endorsed the campaign with the gift of a sacred message stick.
Yolngu cultural leader Balupalu Yunupingu gave the message stick to Yes23 director Noel Pearson on Sunday and said: “Take our voice straight to Canberra, so our voice will be heard.”
While he has reiterated that there will be no move on a Makarrata Commission before the referendum – despite $900,000 spent on the process in the federal budget – Mr Albanese said there was nothing to fear from the second part of the Uluru Statement.
“All that Makarrata represents is a Yolngu word for dialogue, basically, coming together, literally coming together after a struggle,” he told The Australian on Sunday.
“And no one can say that there hasn’t been a struggle.
“The very word Makarrata is something that no one should have any fear over because by definition, it’s about consensus, and working together, and that is something that we need to do as a nation.”
Mr Albanese said it was “absolutely critical” that Indigenous people’s support for the voice was seen. This was because the proposal came from Aboriginal people themselves through a years-long process, despite what opponents had suggested.
“You see (No campaigners) talking about the voice as if it was my idea that I came up with after the election,” he said.
“There is a resilience there from Indigenous Australians who are determined to give this a crack because they know that what’s been happening up to now isn’t working. And we need to try a better way.”
Asked to comment on why the prospect of a treaty between the Commonwealth and Indigenous people had begun to feature so prominently in the No campaign, Mr Albanese said: “They’re talking about it for the same reason that the No campaign raised (the voice) as a third chamber of parliament … in order to talk about anything but what the referendum is about.”
The 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, created by 1200 Indigenous people from every state and territory and the Torres Strait, calls for a voice first then says: “We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth telling about our history”.
Asked if this could be a commission to oversee agreements such as the ones already under way between state governments and Indigenous groups, Mr Albanese said: “Of course.”
He cited the treaty process at its early stages in Queensland before saying: “But that’s something for down the track. And it’s something by definition by consensus, it’s not something that’s imposed, it can’t be.”
As 20,000 Yes volunteers doorknocked on Sunday, Mr Albanese said he believed those one-to-one conversations between Yes volunteers and voters would win the referendum. It would be these conversations that would show the No campaign’s claims about the referendum were “just a distraction”.
“What I think is the (Yes) campaign will continue to concentrate on what this is about, and the no campaign, clearly, will continue to look for other issues,” he said.
“What we’ve seen up to now is a ramping up of a preparedness to talk about anything but the referendum.
“This is ... what is before the Australian people is recognition, and a voice in order to get better outcomes.
“And that is all there is.”
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