Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy says Parliament ‘not ready’ for Makarratta Commission

Plans for a Makarrata Commission to oversee Indigenous truth-telling and treaty making will not be revived before the next Federal election as Labor tries to avoid a re-run of the divisive Voice debate.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy admitted Federal Parliament was “not ready” to embrace the idea, blaming Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for politicising Makarrata and killing off any prospects of bi-partisan support.

Almost 12 months on from the Voice to Parliament’s resounding referendum defeat, Senator McCarthy said the Government needed to be “really cautious” about pursuing a policy that could be weaponised against Indigenous Australians.

“I think that the intent behind Makarrata is sincere with that call for truth-telling, but our Parliament is not ready for that,” she said, adding things could change depending on who was voted in at the next election.

A Makarrata Commission and a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament were the two requests in the Uluru Statement from the Heart that Labor committed to deliver in full.

After losing the Voice referendum, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was accused of walking away from the truth-telling body after only endorsing the principle of Makaratta — a Yolgnu word that means “coming together after a struggle” — during an interview at August’s Garma Festival.

In her first interview with The West since replacing Linda Burney in the porfolio, Senator McCarthy said while Labor still believed in Makarratta it was reluctant to pursue the proposal without the Opposition’s support.

Mr Dutton has ruled out creating a national treaty and truth-telling body if he wins the next Federal election, saying a Coalition government would spend the money on practical measures instead.

“I do value the fact that the principle of voice, treaty, truth is still very strong. You know, we do believe in that,” Senator McCarthy said.

“But we also accept the political reality that if you’re going to weaponise Indigenous Affairs to the extent that we saw through the referendum, we have to be very careful as to how we progress forward and to ensure that we can try and get bipartisanship.

“We have to be really cautious progressing that path and enabling that kind of weaponisation again towards First Nations people.”

Senator McCarthy last month toured Banksia Hill Detention Centre just days after the death of a 17-year-old inside the troubled facility — the second death in WA’s youth justice system in 10 months.

After talks with Aboriginal legal groups and new WA Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce, she said everyone agreed there “was an issue that had to be dealt with”.

“What I didn’t hear was universal agreement on how that would happen,” she added.

Senator McCarthy said she accepted the result of Voice referendum as “disappointing and disheartening as it was”, but took heart from the strong Yes votes recorded in remote Aboriginal communities.

She said the Coalition’s decision to campaign for a No vote and the “misinformation and disinformation” pedalled on social media were the major reasons the referendum failed.

“When you have no bipartisanship and increasingly weaponised tools in social media to create the misinformation and disinformation that really did emerge through it, I don’t think you need to look too far to see any more reasons as to why it went down,” she said.

Senator McCarthy said Labor’s second-term agenda for Indigenous affairs would focus on economic empowerment — as signalled by Mr Albanese in his speech to the Garma Festival.

“We want to see jobs, jobs, jobs,” Senator McCarthy said.

“That is going to be a critical focus for us around economic empowerment and policy and business.

“That will be a very strong commitment of ours, just before the election, going through the election and post into the you know, if we get the second term.”

She claimed Indigenous voices would be silenced under a Dutton Government which had Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as its minister for Indigenous Australians.