‘Deafening silence’ from government on Indigenous affairs: Sean Gordon
Indigenous leader Sean Gordon has added his voice to criticism that Anthony Albanese is ‘running away’ from the loss of the referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament.
Anthony Albanese is facing calls from both sides of the voice debate to lay out his “plan B” for reconciliation early in the new year, with Liberals for Yes leader Sean Gordon accusing Labor of “deafening silence” on Indigenous policy since the referendum.
The comments follow Noel Pearson breaking his three-month silence at the Woodford Folk Festival on the weekend to say Indigenous affairs were in a worse state than before the October 14 vote.
One audience member at the Woodford event said Mr Pearson – a key figure in the Yes campaign – said the Prime Minister was “running away” from Indigenous affairs.
Mr Gordon, who supported the voice in an alliance with constitutional conservatives, said there were no clear solutions being posed by Labor to address inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
“The silence has been deafening from the government on Indigenous affairs,” he told The Australian.
“It’s difficult to see what their solution or response (is) to the high vote among Indigenous people wanting the voice.”
Mr Gordon said the Coalition had also failed to offer a viable alternative to a voice to parliament.
“The government nor the opposition have put forward a sensible solution to address the disparity challenges facing Indigenous people,” he said.
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said in October “the really important thing is the first few weeks of next year, to make sure that we’ve got a road map forward” and left the door open to rolling out local and regional voices using an existing model and without legislation.
Members of the Coalition have been pursuing their own “tangible solutions” to challenges facing Indigenous Australians, including calling for an audit of how millions in funding were being spent by Indigenous organisations.
Opposition spokeswoman for child protection and the prevention of family violence Kerrynne Liddle said it had become clear Labor never had “a plan B” for the Indigenous voice to parliament.
“We’ve got nothing from the Albanese government,” she said.
“My view is until we get to a position where we stop duplication of funding … and get simple audits, nothing will change.
“I cannot believe what I see and hear that doesn’t get addressed in terms of funding accountability. That’s where you are going to get the biggest outcomes.”
Mr Pearson’s comments on the voice defeat were made during a talk hosted by journalist Stan Grant, which also went to whether major political parties would continue to serve the advantaged, according to a summary of the event posted on LinkedIn by Danielle Ireland-Piper, academic director of the Australian National University’s National Security College.
“Noel shared his sense that the Australia we saw on 14 October was an Australia he knew, but not the Australia he hoped for,” Dr Ireland-Piper wrote in her post after attending the event.
“He’d hoped we could be immeasurably better and that the urging he gave Indigenous Australians to trust hadn’t ended in the heartbreak of rejection.
“Where to from here? Can conventional politics from the major parties even help or will both continue to simply serve the advantaged because it gets them re-elected? How do we use love and kindness in community to walk forward together?”
Ms Burney was not available when asked about Mr Pearson’s comments, while Woodford Festival organisers said there had been a glitch with the recording of the talk and that they would not provide any vision or audio without the permission of the speakers.
Mr Albanese last week said that he did not consider the failure of the voice in October a personal loss.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, very important to call that out. I am not Indigenous so it wasn’t a loss to me,” he said.
“That stays exactly the same the way it is. I do think that it was disappointing for First Nations people but they’re used to … hardship … but it’s one of the things about this debate, it was never about politicians, it was actually about the most disadvantaged people in our society.”
A number of Yes campaigners criticised Mr Albanese for claiming no sense of personal loss after championing the referendum, including in his election-night victory speech in May 2022.
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