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Who was the first of Australia’s First Nations peoples to hold the office of Minister for Indigenous Australians, and what happened after the Government rejected the Uluru Statement from the Heart? Find out below!
In December 2015, another bipartisan supported Referendum Council was established to lead a national process of consultations and community engagement, including those ‘Indigenous-designed and led’, and to advise government on the next steps to a successful constitutional referendum.
Despite the generosity of spirit embodied by the Uluru Statement, in October 2017 the then Turnbull Government outrightly rejected its proposals, breaking the Prime Minister’s promise of ‘doing things with Aboriginal people’ instead of to them. Turnbull made the decision unilaterally meaning the decision didn’t hold any consultation or regard to the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples – the national representative body – or members of the Referendum Council.
After rejecting the Uluru Statement, the Government established another Joint Select Committee in March 2018, tasked to again ‘inquire into and report on matters relating to constitutional change, including the proposal for the establishment of a First Nations Voice.’
This Committee’s Final Report in November 2018 endorsed a constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament. By the end of 2018, the Federal Labor Opposition took an affirmative position by promising to ‘establish a Voice for First Nations people’ and to take the issue of Constitutional Recognition to referendum if elected to government in 2019.
The Hon. Ken Wyatt, the first Indigenous person to hold the office of Minister for Indigenous Australians, shared mixed messages on constitutional reform. He could not rule in a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament; he suggested other forms and levels of co-operative self-determination between government and the people were available; that he was attempting to ascertain the extent of support throughout his own government; and, that any referendum must not go ahead without a confident expectation of success.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison never expressed support for a constitutionally enshrined Voice. It appears that the former government was, at best, ambivalent in its commitment towards a lasting solution to what the Uluru delegates described as:
…the torment of our powerlessness.
The recently elected Labor government has made a pledge to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and have stated their intent to progress a referendum for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament. In his first ever press conference as Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese ensured the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags would stand alongside the Australian flag before he addressed his audience, reigniting hopes for First Nations peoples and many other Australians.
While momentum and support for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament is growing there continues to be uncertainty over what this reform will mean. A constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament will allow First Nations peoples the opportunity to guide policy that affect them and their communities. Against the backdrop of a constitution that prior to the 1967 Referendum excluded First Nations peoples from the Australian census, providing First Nations peoples with the agency to inform decisions made for them should be perceived as a minor change for the nation.
To this, PM Albanese said in his historic address to the nation at Garma Festival 2022:
A referendum is a high hurdle to clear, you know that and so do we. We recognise the risks of failure – but we also recognise the risk of failing to try. We see this referendum as a magnificent opportunity for Australia… I am optimistic that this historic decision, this long-overdue embrace of truth and justice and decency and respect for First Nations people will be voted into law by the people of Australia.
Out of the 19 referenda and 44 proposed changes have been attempted, only eight amendments to the Constitution have been accepted since 1901. It is a dedicated nation-building campaign drawing on the significance of representation and mutual respect that will shift the votes of uncertain Australians.
The case was made in the 1967 Referendum that Section 127 of the constitution (declaring Aborigines [sic] should not be counted in the census) was “completely out of harmony with our national attitudes and modern thinking. It has no place in our Constitution in this age”. This same sentiment could be argued in the campaign in 2022 to have an enshrined Voice which is a necessary progression towards treaty and reconciliation negotiations.
Harry Hobbs, Australian Public LawThe absence of an Indigenous representative body leaves First Nations peoples in the same position as they were in the 1960s – with an inability to have their voices heard and interests considered in the processes of government. In the face of Commonwealth reluctance, First Nations activism has turned to the states and territories. This strategy has had some success.
Constitutional recognition offers the opportunity to transcend the influence that electoral politics has had on First Nations peoples’ rights, access to justice and to build the foundations to have meaningful input on policies and projects that impact their communities and futures.
