Wyatt’s voice

It makes no sense whatsoever for the prime minister to appoint Ken Wyatt as the first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians, give him his head on a bipartisan approach to a referendum in a major speech at the National Press Club, then, within 48 hours, veto the one position about which those who devised the Uluru Statement from the Heart feel most strongly about – namely, a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament. It is too easy to conclude that here we have another example of the same diabolical policy-wrecking dynamic we’ve seen over the last five years from the Coalition, in which the conservative wing maintains the upper hand because it is most willing to have a hissy fit and, if it comes to it, threaten the government’s narrow majority. But not even the Coalition could expect Indigenous Australians to suffer a summary rejection of the Uluru statement  – not once but twice – and then participate with goodwill in some kind of faux consultation around yet another alternative.

It is all too easy to throw off a policy debate, of course. In 2010, remember, someone inside the government killed off Labor’s emissions trading scheme by prematurely tipping off Lenore Taylor, then at The Sydney Morning Herald, that the scheme would be shelved for three years. All hell broke loose that the Rudd government would duck the greatest moral challenge of our time. Years later, in the ABC’s The Killing Season, Rudd was clear about the impact of that story – in fact, he said, he had not yet made a final decision and clearly somebody wanted to make it for him. (In his memoir, he writes that that somebody was Julia Gillard.)

Today we have an off-the-record government source telling [$] The Australian that the prime minister has made clear that a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament is “not going to happen on his watch”. Then we have a pile-on of commentators – along with some heavyweights, like Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton – spelling out why. And Ken Wyatt, on day two, trying to create some wiggle room for a bipartisan [$] process. That is no way to run a government. Perhaps the PM’s mind really is made up on this question, and he will never allow a constitutionally voice to parliament, but if that’s the case he should say so explicitly.

Wyatt today is urging pragmatism and saying that a legislated – rather than constitutionally entrenched – voice to parliament may be a better way forward. On the Labor side, both Linda Burney and Patrick Dodson have said and written that the Uluru Statement from the Heart must be delivered in full – and that means not just the voice to parliament, but a First Nations treaty and a truth-telling Makarrata commission. Dodson wrote yesterday that First Nations people have “always been the first victims of debilitating government procrastination”. The voice is just the first step, and Burney explained on Sky News Australia last night that it has to be enshrined in the Constitution so that it cannot be as easily abolished as ATSIC was by John Howard in 2005. Then she reminded everybody why the voice is necessary:

“On every single social rung – it doesn’t matter whether it’s health outcomes, education outcomes, overcrowding, domestic violence, life expectancy – Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders are on the bottom rung. And that is because there has not been Aboriginal people at the table helping design the legislation and advise on legislation and programs. And that’s what this voice is actually about.”

Unless the prime minister wants Burney and Dodson on the warpath, he would be best to reconsider that veto and stick to the genuine consultation process he has tasked Wyatt with running.

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