Anthony Albanese has failed to directly answer whether he will push forward with a Makarrata Commission after the country issued a resounding No vote to the Voice to Parliament at the weekend.
Such a commission – which would supervise a treaty-making and truth-telling process – was a key request in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which the Prime Minister vowed to implement in full.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal more than $540,000 has already been spent on setting up such a commission, which is named after an Indigenous Yolgnu word meaning ‘coming together after a struggle’.
Senior Opposition figures Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Sussan Ley are calling on the government to stop all work on the proposal, which it had set $27.7million aside for in the Federal Budget.
Some $1.7million has been allocated to the National Indigenous Australians Agency since Labor was elected. However, work toward the commission was paused during the referendum campaign as Labor faced sustained heat to explain the link between the Voice and treaty.
A spokesperson for the agency confirmed that the Commission is ‘yet to be established’, however, some ‘$546,920 was spent on NIAA resourcing to prepare for the independent Makarrata Commission’.
The ‘culmination of the agenda’ from the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a ‘Makarrata Commission’ which would seek a treaty between the government and First Nations communities
Every state in Australia returned a No result on Saturday night, with Queensland seeing the strongest rejection of the Voice in any state or territory. The darker the red, the bigger the No vote. Blue represents seats that voted Yes
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who led the No campaign to victory on Saturday night, told Daily Mail Australia ‘the resounding result of the referendum should force this Government to rethink its approach to matters related to Indigenous Australians’.
‘The country needs to move forward and should focus on seeking out practical ways to help our most marginalised Australians.’
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley also told Daily Mail Australia it’s time for the government to come clean.
‘Linda Burney needs to front up and explain what is going on with her Makarrata Commission, she repeatedly refused to do so during the referendum,’ Ms Ley said.
‘Anthony Albanese allocated millions of dollars to the Makarrata Commission, which is under the responsibility of Linda Burney as minister, and we uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent on it, so what is it doing?’
The Prime Minister was asked about his commitment to Makarrata in Question Time on Monday, but was unable to give a firm answer about his position.
‘The Voice was with constitutional recognition. Makarrata is simply a Yolgnu word for coming together after a struggle,’ he said.
‘What I am committed to post referendum is respecting what Indigenous people have said.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (right), who led the No campaign to victory on Saturday night, told Daily Mail Australia ‘the resounding result of the referendum should force this Government to rethink its approach to matters related to Indigenous Australians’
The PM and Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney conceded defeat for the referendum on Saturday night, but remained committed to improving the lives of First Nations people
Australians overwhelmingly voted down the proposal 39 per cent to 61 per cent
‘And what they are saying is that they are undertaking a week, which is reasonable, for them to deal with [what is] a difficult time for them.’
The PM was referring to a week of silence and mourning which many Indigenous leaders committed to after the referendum defeat on Saturday night.
On Sunday morning, deputy PM Richard Marles said the government remains committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart – which includes a Makarrata Commission.
Government insiders said departments are waiting on the all clear from the PM and Minister Burney’s office about whether to proceed with the commission.
The Makarrata Commission’s role is to seek a treaty between the federal Government and the First Nations community. This Makarrata Commission has the ‘authority to facilitate the process of treaty-making and truth telling’ between the two groups, according to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Mr Albanese outlined the responsibilities of such a future commission in a statement on November 15, 2021
After winning the May 2022 federal election, he declared the new Labor government would adopt the Uluru Statement of the Heart ‘in full’.
Mr Albanese said at the time: ‘As called for in the Uluru Statement, the Makarrata Commission will have responsibilities for overseeing processes for Treaty-Making and Truth-Telling.
‘The Makarrata Commission will be independent… and will work with a Voice to Parliament when it is established.’
Responsibilities of the commission would ‘initially’ include consulting with First Nations communities, recommending a ‘framework for federal treaty-making’ and, crucially, delivering a report within the first term of a Labor government.
By that schedule, the commission will have had to be established and had enough time to consult the community and deliberate by 2025, when the next election is due.
Mr Albanese said $26.5million would be allocated to the commission in the first two years to ‘support truth-telling projects’, and he hoped state, territory and local governments would match that funding.
This is in addition to the $364.6million set aside in the latest budget for delivering the Voice – which failed at the referendum held on Saturday.
Yes volunteers were devastated by the resounding No vote on Saturday night
Australians overwhelmingly voted down the proposal 39 per cent to 61 per cent.
All six states, as well as the Northern Territory, rejected the proposal. The Australian Capital Territory was the only jurisdiction in favour of it.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart was delivered in May 2017, after two years of deliberative ‘dialogues’ with Indigenous communities throughout the nation.
The Uluru Statement describes Makarrata as ‘the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle.
‘It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
‘We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.’
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