The federal government’s stance on a national treaty has not changed since the Indigenous voice referendum defeat, the prime minister says.
Anthony Albanese is standing firm in the face of accusations his government has abandoned its commitments to truth-telling and treaty processes.
Following an address to the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory, Albanese cited the Yolngu word “makarrata,” saying it was a process of “coming together after struggle” through engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“What we need to do is to work on ways which do make a practical difference,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“The voice was never the end in itself, the voice was the means to close the gap by listening to people.”
Albanese said the federal government had not been progressing treaty before the October referendum on whether to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution, and that has not changed.
Instead, treaty processes were taking place through states and territories.
He said it was important for Australians to “walk together” in efforts to close the gap between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians.
“Australia, as a nation, will benefit from being more united, more reconciled with our history, and that’s important for all of us, but it’s also important for how Australia is seen in the region and the world,” he said.
Earlier, former voice referendum Yes23 campaign manager Dean Parkin said the government should not backslide on its commitments to truth-telling and treaty.
“We’re talking about a thing that would oversee, as the Uluru Statement says, the process of agreement-making between First Nations and truth-telling about our history,” Parkin said on Saturday during a panel at Garma, Australia’s largest Indigenous cultural festival.
“If we start talking about it as a concept it gets left open to whatever it may be.”
The Greens accused the government of “all but abandoning” the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The 2017 Uluru statement called for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice and a Makarrata Commission, which would work towards a treaty and truth-telling.
“Despite Labor previously committing to implement the Uluru Statement in full, today Anthony Albanese treated it like the elephant in the room, saying let’s leave it to the states and territories,” Greens Senator Dorinda Cox said on Saturday.