Key Points
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged the Indigenous Voice to parliament does not have total support.
- At the weekend, Mr Albanese proposed a potential referendum question to enshrine the Indigenous Voice in the constitution.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said discussions on developing a Treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in states like Victoria show that it can happen at a federal level too, alongside work on the First Nations Voice to Parliament constitutional plan.
"I want to be absolutely clear: There is absolutely no reason that we can't commence process towards truth-telling and Treaty now. We could start it right now," he told reporters at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
"The Victorian government has started it. We can begin it right now."
Victoria has made the most progress on Treaty negotiations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia since and actions taken to facilitate the democratically-elected First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria to oversee the process.
Vigorous debate
Debate over the path to Indigenous constitutional recognition kicked into high gear over the weekend at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined how the federal government planned to deliver on an election commitment to see measures in the Uluru Statement of the Heart adopted.
Mr Albanese a proposed question to be put to Australians at a referendum to change the Constitution to recognise Indigenous Australians with a Voice to Parliament.
The question is: "Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?"
Indigenous and non-Indigenous advocates for Uluru Statement helped to craft what Mr Albanese called the "simple" proposition to provide the best chance for referendum success.
An Indigenous Voice to Parliament enshrined in the constitution is one of the goals outlined in the consensus position statement from Indigenous leaders.
The statement also urged politicians to back a Makarrata Commission, through legislative change, to oversee both the development of a Treaty with First Nations people and a process of truth-telling about history.
However, not everyone agrees on the path to achieving these goals and in what order.
Yolŋu man and independent MP in the Northern Territory Parliament, Yingiya Mark Guyula, has he would like to see the focus first on a treaty with Indigenous Australians before an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Australia remains the only Commonwealth country to have never signed a legally binding treaty, covering issues such as land rights, with its Indigenous people.
Mr Albanese responded on Wednesday to calls to consider pushing for Treaty within this three-year term of federal Parliament, saying he did not think such a measure could be fully realised in that timeframe.
"If people think that you can achieve Treaty in this term of parliament, then I'd say that is ambitious," he said.
"What you can achieve in this parliament is a step forward during this time [through constitutional change to recognise an Indigenous Voice to Parliament], and it would be an important step forward for our nation."
'Time to take action'
Mr Bandt said his party would be making it clear in their discussions with the federal government that actions would be taken by MPs from today and over the next three years to complement the constitutional project to recognise Indigenous Australians.
He said those steps could include commencing Treaty negotiations at a federal level and implementing the recommendations of landmark reports such as the 1991 report from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
"When we go into those discussions with the government about the proposal for the Voice [to Parliament], we want to see a number of things.
"We want to see progress towards truth-telling and Treaty start in this parliament. We want to see a start down the road of truth-telling and treaty. We want to see the recommendations from the previous Royal Commission reports into black deaths in custody and also the Bringing them Home reports into the Stolen Generations."
In 31 years since the Royal Commission report, at least 489 Indigenous deaths in custody have been recorded, according to from the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Indigenous children are also over-represented in the prison population. They are up to 30 times as likely to be in prison that their non-Indigenous counterparts in some parts of Australia, of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.
This year, marked the 25th anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report which outlined the impact of government policies of the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families. A number of 54 recommendations, including a , have yet to be implemented.
PM insists on giving 'people the space to walk on this journey'
Responding to who are calling for more details on Indigenous Voice to Parliament model and plan, Mr Albanese said it is important that all Australians - Indigenous and non-Indigenous - are brought into the discussion to ensure referendum success.
"What I don't want to do is to get ahead of that debate to the point whereby people can find one element in which they can disagree with," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday afternoon.
"I respect people having different views on this, I want a national conversation, though, what I did on Saturday was provide a framework for that conversation, to enable it to move forward."
Only eight of Australia's 44 referendums resulted in a victory for the 'yes' vote. It is a high threshold that must be achieved to change the constitution: a double majority vote is required.
This means a majority of voters overall; and a majority of states - that is at least four of the six states.
On Saturday, Mr Albanese warned that there remained many hurdles to overcome for the plan for Indigenous constitutional recognition to succeed - a commitment Labor took to the election and one which Mr Albanese vowed he wanted to see achieved within the next three years.
He listed "indifference" and "misinformation and fear campaigns".
On Tuesday, the federal opposition leader added to the list, saying he believed the broader public lacked an understanding about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament plan.
No date has been set yet for a referendum to be held, although Mr Albanese has committed to seeing the change through during his three-year term.
The group behind the Uluru Statement from the Heart is proposing two dates for the referendum: 27 May 2023, or 27 January 2024.
