One of the leading figures behind the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has used her first public statement since the referendum to call out the Albanese government’s “silence” following the result, and back a Greens push for a federal truth and justice commission.
Uluru Dialogues chair Pat Anderson has urged the government not to use the defeated referendum as a reason to stall work on other areas of Indigenous policy, arguing the Voice was a specific answer to a specific question.
The federal Greens will this week look to revive a push for a national truth and justice commission, urging the government to maintain its commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
“Truth” is one of the three core elements of the Uluru Statement, and the government has allocated funding to pursuing treaty and truth-telling.
In its first budget in 2022, the Albanese government committed $7.8 million to commencing work on a Makarrata Commission, which would oversee a process on treaty and truth-telling.
But in the wake of the defeat of the Voice referendum last year, the government has indicated it will “take its time” in getting the process right.
The Greens are now seeking to accelerate that — putting legislation to the parliament this week to establish a truth and justice commission at a Commonwealth level.
Commenting publicly for the first time since the referendum, Pat Anderson said the Voice result makes work on Makarrata all the more urgent.
“It has been nine months since the referendum and there needs to be forward momentum,” she said.
“Our people are hurting from the silence, and there needs to be leadership.
“Nothing has changed since October 14. Change is needed. Change is urgent.”
She said the Labor government should meet the commitments it made before the last election to act on the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.
“The Makarrata policy is one that Labor openly and transparently took to the federal election in its support for the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart, and it was costed through the budget process,” she said.
“The referendum outcome should not be used as a barrier to the nation progressing on unfinished business.”
Greens to introduce Makarrata bill
The Greens’ bill would establish a commission of 10 members, which would spend four years looking into “historic and ongoing injustices” towards Indigenous Australians.
The 10 members would represent each state and territory, along with two chief commissioners.
They would be specifically tasked with investigating a range of areas including “ongoing systemic injustice” from the Commonwealth government and other federal bodies, and redress for historic injustices.
It would also have a focus on the pre-colonial history of Indigenous Australians.
It’s expected the commission would deliver a report to the federal parliament no later than four years after starting its work.
Greens First Nations spokesperson Dorinda Cox says after the Voice referendum was defeated, a truth and justice commission is now more important.
“People need hope, they need some hope that we want to progress as a nation,” she said.
“We want to make sure that we are making inroads into those conversations. We’re providing a very bold and courageous action in bringing a bill to the parliament that sees this enshrined in legislation.
“This issue is not going away, and we need the Labor government to back this in.”
Part of the Greens’ hope in bringing on the bill is that it goes through a committee process within the parliament, which would bring on a broader conversation about the shape and scope of a future commission.
Some leading Indigenous advocates argue that is a critical process, to avoid problems encountered by similar commissions globally.
‘We will take our time’: Albanese government treading carefully
The Voice referendum was a key election pledge for the Albanese government, along with establishing a Makarrata Commission “as a priority”.
The defeat of the Yes campaign — which lost by a vote of about 60 to 40 per cent nationally, and failed to win any state or territory bar the ACT — was undoubtedly a political blow to the government
Linda Burney, the minister for Indigenous Australians, says that the Voice result needs to be understood and processed before further steps can be taken.
“We will take our time to make sure we get this right,” she said.
“We’re working very collaboratively with states and territories in terms of treaty and truth-telling processes … what First Nations people are saying to me is that we need time to think about the next steps.”
Ms Burney argues the truth-telling work underway at a state and local level should not be discounted.
“The issue of truth-telling is something that has, over the last 12 months and before that, been taken up by community groups, by local government, by schools, by land councils, by various institutions like The Healing Foundation,” she said.
“So, in my view, the process of truth-telling in this country is well and truly underway, and it has been underway for a very long time.”
Greens, Yes advocates push for action now
Greens senator Dorinda Cox rejects suggestions it is too soon to start a national truth-telling process.
She argues there is both a willingness and a need to have some of the difficult conversations that truth-telling may bring about.
“I think we have to go into this conversation with some key principles that it will be uncomfortable, and understanding that there is no blame attached to this,” she said.
“This is a recording of history, this is a time in which we say it is important for everyone to know.
“Because if we don’t know, then of course we get into a situation where we start to resist the urge to hear any of that.”
Marcus Stewart was a leading advocate for the Yes vote at last year’s referendum, and helped establish Victoria’s ongoing truth-telling Yoorrook Justice Commission.
He said rather than providing a reason to push back a truth-telling process at the national level, the Voice result indicated a stronger need for it.
“What the [referendum defeat] told us is the absolute need for truth-telling in this country,” he said.
“To understand the historical wrongs, to understand how we build the structural and systemic jigsaw puzzle of what happened to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here, in this great country, upon settlement.
“And how we move collectively together as the best country in the world.”