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Labor senator Patrick Dodson to retire from parliament amid health battle

WA senator Patrick Dodson, who has incurable Hodgkin’s lymphoma, will retire from politics on Australia Day. 

WA senator Pat Dodson will retire in January.
WA senator Pat Dodson will retire in January.

Patrick Dodson has endorsed local and regional voices and says non-Indigenous Australians must come on board if the country is to progress treaty-making and truth-telling.

Known as the Father of Reconciliation, Senator Dodson, who will formally retire on January 26, three days before his 76th birthday, said he left parliament with a sense of sorrow after the failed voice referendum.

Flanked by Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Indigenous Labor colleagues after receiving a standing ovation in the final caucus meeting of the year, Senator Dodson said he believed the jury was out on constitutional recognition through a voice to parliament but he conceded that many Australians of goodwill didn’t understand the implications and complexities of the proposal put by the Albanese government and referendum working group.

“That requires consultation, and I accept that,” Senator Dodson said, adding that the successful No campaign had created an “Australian problem”.

“A 60-40 split of that (referendum) vote makes it an Australian problem. It’s not an Aboriginal problem ... We need to seriously think now of the way in which our civil society knits together with its diversity and differences.

“We can’t take that for granted and it is not just First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, this is an Australian problem we now have and it’s the legacy of the success of the No voters.”

Pat Dodson to retire from politics amid cancer battle

The Special Envoy for Reconciliation and Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, who has this year battled a life-threatening infection on his oesophagus and incurable Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said he had recognised during the referendum debate that he wasn’t able to carry out his duties as he wished.

Senator Dodson nominated three ways forward in Indigenous affairs that would make reconciliation more meaningful, including improving Closing the Gap outcomes, seeking inspiration from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people to set standards and measures for future public debates and ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could become economically independent.

Noting that he and Liberal MP Julian Leeser had previously recommended regional bodies to give Indigenous Australians decision-making roles in programs and funding that affected them, Senator Dodson said it was “still a very important factor” for local and regional communities to hold governments to account.

“I know the minister (Ms Burney) is considering that (regional and local voices) and my colleagues are. It’s not an easy thing having people tell us we shouldn’t have a national voice but we are working through that and we want to be respectful to the First Peoples and we will find a way to come through that,” he said.

The West Australian senator, a Yawuru man who entered federal parliament in 2016, said the government required input and direction from Indigenous people on how best to progress a Makarrata Commission to oversee treaties and truth-telling processes.

“The lesson we’ve learned out of this is (that) the non-Indigenous people have to come on board with this. You can’t have a treaty with yourself. You can’t have truth-­telling on your own in some little secret room. It’s got to involve all of us,” Senator Dodson said.

“We don’t bow to people telling us what we can’t do.”

Anthony Albanese said he was filled with sadness at Senator Dodson’s plans to retire but also gratitude, saying he had spent his life championing justice and advancing reconciliation. “A commissioner into Aboriginal deaths in custody, the first chair of Reconciliation Australia, and a director of the Central Land Council and the Kimberley Land Council, he shone a spotlight on the gaping chasm in outcomes between Indigenous and non-­Indigenous Australians and put forward solutions grounded in policy reform,” the Prime Minister said.

“He always sought to call attention to the deep connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples share with the land and waters and the incredible contribution they have made to our ­national life.”

Rosie Lewis
Rosie LewisPolitical Correspondent

Rosie Lewis is The Australian’s Political Correspondent. She made her mark in Canberra after breaking story after story about the political rollercoaster unleashed by the Senate crossbench of the 44th parliament. Her national reporting includes exclusives on the dual citizenship fiasco, women in parliament, the COVID-19 pandemic, voice referendum and climate wars. Lewis has covered policy in-depth across most portfolios and has a particular focus on climate and energy.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-senator-pat-dodson-to-retire-from-parliament-amid-health-battle/news-story/c539b8b6f2edb029f48ecc7cf452fb7b