Anthony Albanese needs circuit-breaker to heal scars of voice vote

Anthony Albanese in question time on Tuesday. Picture: Martin Ollman / NCA NewsWire

Anthony Albanese is walking away from Labor’s election pledge to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and struggling to articulate a coherent Indigenous policy agenda.

In abdicating responsibility to the states on treaty – a key remaining element of the Uluru pledge – the Prime Minister seems scarred by political wounds inflicted over his woeful handling of the referendum. After the referendum to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament was rejected by more than 60 per cent of Australians, Albanese has backed himself into a corner over Labor’s support for a Makarrata Commission.

Ahead of the October 14 vote, the No side told voters the Commission would pay out compensation under treaties signed with Indigenous groups. Spooked by the emphatic result, the government immediately “reviewed” its Makarrata Commission commitment.

Albanese bizarrely told Labor MPs on Tuesday they should be proud the government went to a referendum on the voice, despite its failure leaving his Indigenous affairs agenda in tatters.

His misguided pride in the campaign even extends to him displaying a framed cartoon in his Parliament House office titled “The Voice”, depicting the 60-year-old pushing open a vault revealing the yellow sun at the heart of the Aboriginal flag.

Albanese and Linda Burney must lay down a more comprehensive plan to “Close the Gap”. On the other side of the aisle, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle are working up an ambitious Indigenous policy Peter Dutton will take to the election.

A ministerial reshuffle, which could be triggered if Burney retires ahead of the 2025 election, looms as a necessary circuit-breaker for Albanese. Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy, or other rising stars in Labor ranks, could deliver the spark needed to get Labor’s Indigenous policy platform back on track.

While a change in personnel would help, Albanese continues to rack up broken promises.

He faces residual damage after reneging on his pledge to keep the Coalition’s stage three tax cuts and commitments to not impose radical, union-backed industrial relations changes. For a leader who promised integrity and transparency, Albanese’s wishy-washy comments on treaty and truth-telling leave Indigenous leaders and voters confused as to his plan to progress reconciliation.

The calculation for Labor, which won a historically low 32.6 per cent primary vote in 2022, is that left-wing and progressive voters will automatically put the ALP ahead of Dutton’s Coalition.