Category Archives: Indigenous voice to parliament

‘Genocide’: Patrick Dodson condemns Australia’s Aboriginal youth incarceration rates

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Former Labor senator also says child removals are a way to ‘eradicate a people from the landscape’

Former Labor senator Patrick Dodson has condemned the country’s Aboriginal youth incarceration rates and child removals as an ongoing genocide against First Peoples and an “embarrassing sore” on the nation.

“It’s an assault on the Aboriginal people. I don’t say that lightly [but] if you want to eradicate a people from the landscape, you start taking them away, you start destroying the landscape of their cultural heritage, you attack their children or remove their children,” Dodson said.

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Dutton flip-flops on proposals for three separate referendums if Coalition wins election

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Opposition leader floats – then walks back – polls on Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals

Peter Dutton has floated – then quickly walked back – proposals for three separate referendums if he wins office, shutting down ideas he had raised to change the constitution for Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals.

The opposition leader had told The Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that he was open to referendums on the three issues if there could be bipartisanship found with the Labor party. “I hope at some stage there will be common ground,” Dutton told the newspaper.

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Voice referendum normalised racism towards Indigenous Australians, report finds

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Complaints detailing distressing incidents of racism reveal 2023 referendum one of Australia’s ‘darker moments’, author says

Warning: this article contains distressing descriptions of racism

A report examining racism towards Indigenous Australians found one fifth of all complaints contained reference to the failed voice to parliament referendum, in what authors say was one of the nation’s “darker moments”.

The report, titled If You Don’t Think Racism Exists Come Take a Walk With Us, was released on Thursday. Undertaken by the University of Technology Sydney’s Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research and the National Justice Project, it is the second annual report about racism targeting First Nations people and is based on 453 validated reports of racism made to the Call it Out register in the 12 months to 20 March 2024.

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‘Keep moving forward’: Yunupingu leads Australia Day honours

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Late Yolŋu Indigenous rights activist appointed companion of the Order of Australia, along with lawyer Megan Davis and refugee advocate Gillian Triggs

The late Yolŋu Indigenous rights activist Dr Galarrwuy Yunupingu has posthumously been appointed a companion of the Order of Australia in this year’s Australia Day honours list, where he is joined by emeritus professor Gillian Triggs, the former head of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and Cobble Cobble constitutional lawyer and Indigenous advocate scientia professor Megan Davis.

Yunupingu, a key supporter of the Indigenous voice to parliament, died six months before the referendum on constitutional recognition that was the driving force of the final decades of his life.

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First Nations Voice makes history in South Australia: ‘We are determined to prove you wrong’

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Inaugural address from Leeroy Bilney, outlining racist history of Australia and future challenges, greeted with acclaim

The First Nations Voice has delivered its first message to the South Australian parliament: “We are determined to prove you wrong.”

MPs had to squeeze together to make room for all those who turned up to Wednesday’s special joint sitting to hear the Voice’s inaugural address.

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Eight staff of Australian Electoral Commission contractor fabricated voice referendum location data

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AEC ‘considering its legal position’ after investigation prompted by Guardian reporting into allegations from McNair whistleblower

Eight staff fabricated location data on Indigenous communities while working for a company contracted by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) during last year’s failed voice referendum process, an investigation has found.

The AEC said it was now “considering its legal position” over the scandal and remained “incredibly disappointed” in the alleged behaviour of McNair yellowSquares, a market research firm engaged as part of the commission’s efforts to improve participation in the vote.

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‘No settlement to the original grievance’: voice champions give rallying cry for unity in Australia

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‘Our mob across the country wanted structural reform', Pat Anderson told online audience; ‘that’s what we’re still fighting for,’ Prof Megan Davis said

A key proponent of the Indigenous Voice to parliament, rejected at a referendum a year ago, has challenged Australians to be “bigger and wider – to be grand” and to forge from that bruising experience “an authentic Australian nation”.

Pat Anderson’s rallying cry on the eve of the anniversary came at the close of an hour-long online event for key ‘Yes’ advocates to reflect, lament and commit to “stay true to Uluru”.

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Coalition senators split in voting on Ralph Babet motion on abortion – as it happened

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Murray Watt on visas: ‘We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition’

The opposition has continued its political attacks against visas being given to Palestinians from Gaza (before Israel seized and completely closed the Rafah border in May).

We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition when they were in power and when Peter Dutton was the minister. Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, has confirmed that himself.

Peter Dutton was quite prepared to use certain processes when he was the minister. Now we’re in power, he wants to criticise that. He wants to find division, to find reasons for criticism and be negative of the government.

I think this is just a ridiculous example he’s [Adam Bandt] giving, to disguise the fact yesterday the Greens were the only party in the parliament who decided to side with John Setka … rather than taking the side of the Australian people.

We had a vote in the Parliament yesterday, in the Senate, that called on the Greens to say they wouldn’t take political donations from the CFMEU construction division, they refused to vote for that. So I think it’s pretty clear what the motivation here is in voting against this legislation.

We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade, the Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, Labor has received millions of dollars and what we say is we have not received the money, it is not why we are engaged in the debate.

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Anthony Albanese open to Makarrata commission for truth and treaty for Indigenous Australians

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But the government is being urged to move more quickly in outlining policy after failure of voice referendum

Anthony Albanese says he will attend Arnhem Land’s Garma festival in August to “talk about a way forward” on Indigenous policy after the defeat of the voice referendum, keeping open the prospect of setting up a Makarrata commission to advance truth and treaty processes.

But key advocates for the referendum have urged the government to move more quickly in outlining its new agenda, including honouring the prime minister’s election night pledge to implement the Uluru statement from the heart “in full”.

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‘Time to be fearless’: NT attorney general urges Australian leaders to pursue treaty after voice defeat

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Chansey Paech says the Uluru statement is ‘not finished’ despite the result of the voice referendum

The Northern Territory’s attorney general is urging the nation’s leaders to put last year’s voice referendum result behind them and move to forge treaties with Indigenous people because “the time for sorry business is over”.

The attorney general and deputy chief minister, Chansey Paech, is urging the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and state and territory colleagues not to allow the referendum result to stall progress on the other elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.

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Ten lawyers tell court Lehrmann may have leaked confidential material to Spotlight program – as it happened

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Aviation firefighters will walk off the job amid revelations many of the nation’s airports are ill-equipped to handle emergencies, AAP reports.

Leaked risk assessments carried out by Airservices Australia reveal travellers at 13 airports including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide airports, were found to be at extreme risk if there was a fire or aircraft incident because of a lack of firefighting resources.

These leaked documents confirm that Australia’s air travellers face a dire risk every time they set foot on an aircraft in Australia.

Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

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Mick Gooda says voice referendum failed because of ‘crash through or crash’ strategy

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Indigenous leader says yes campaign lacked necessary bipartisanship and federal reform for Aboriginal people has ‘come to a complete standstill’

Indigenous leader Mick Gooda will blame a flawed “crash through or crash” strategy for the failed voice to parliament referendum, arguing in a speech that the result has seen federal reforms for Aboriginal people “come to a complete standstill”.

In a speech to be delivered at the National Aboriginal Press Club in Brisbane on Friday, the co-chair of the Queensland Interim Truth and Treaty Body, planned to say the yes campaign’s strategy lacked necessary bipartisanship or detail, while criticising the negative tactics used by the no campaign, which he believed received funding from people or groups in the US.

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Rightwing lobby group Advance Australia doubles donation revenue but half of donors unknown

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Campaigner for no vote in voice referendum received $5.2m last financial year, 47% of it ‘dark money’ from sources not revealed publicly

Advance Australia, the conservative lobby group that claimed success for defeating the voice referendum, more than doubled the amount of donations it received during the 2022-23 financial year.

But the origin of almost half of the funds remains unknown.

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Labor urged to press on with stalled treaty body after failed voice vote

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Exclusive: Indigenous leader Marcus Stewart says ‘more need than ever’ for Makaratta commission after referendum highlights disparities

The federal government should press on with the stalled Makarrata commission to oversee treaty and truth-telling processes with Indigenous Australians, a key adviser on the voice referendum says, adding there is “more need than ever” for such progress after the defeat of the October vote.

Marcus Stewart, a former co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, said the unsuccessful referendum campaign had highlighted the gaping disparities in health and social outcomes for Indigenous people. He said the renewed focus on those shortfalls should encourage federal and state governments to continue moving forward on treaty and truth – and to bring both yes and no voters with them.

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Makarrata commission in limbo after failure of Indigenous voice referendum

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Indigenous Australians department says it is giving advice on treaty and truth processes, but declines to reveal commission’s status

After the failed voice referendum, the Indigenous Australians department says it is still giving advice to the federal government on treaty and truth processes but the future of the Makarrata commission remains in limbo.

The 2022 budget provided $5.8m to start work on setting up the Makarrata commission, which was to oversee processes for making agreements and truth-telling. During the election, the government pledged more than $27m to establish the body.

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Jacinta Price declined 52 ABC interview requests to discuss Indigenous voice referendum

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A report by the national broadcaster found the prominent no campaigner ‘did not agree to a single interview on a major broadcast program’

High-profile no campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price turned down interview requests from the ABC to discuss the voice referendum more than 52 times, according to the national broadcaster’s referendum coverage review committee report.

The report found the yes campaign had about twice as much coverage overall as the no campaign. The reasons for that, according to the report, included a lack of people willing to come on to discuss the no side, time taken up by government press conferences which often argued for the yes vote, and a decision to focus on First Nations voices, who were predominantly arguing for yes.

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Australia politics live: PM delivers national apology to thalidomide survivors; Pocock and Plibersek strike deal on Murray-Darling

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Plan will remove a cap on buybacks and extend deadlines for water recovery targets. Follow the day’s news live

For what kinds of crimes would preventive detention be used?

Preventive detention can be used for terrorists or terrorism suspects already (yes, we already do this) so what other crimes will be added to the list? (Not all of the cohort have committed crimes.)

What I can tell you is that we’ll work through the detail of the law over the coming days. We’ve had a high court decision for about 17 hours now.

But the high court decision actually specifically refers to child sexual abuse as one of the grounds on which preventive detention might also be lawful.

We will work through these issues and will do so in a way that is fast but also constitutional. What we have seen on the other side of politics is a pretty torrid history of rushing laws, doing it improperly and writing things that aren’t constitutional, that are later thrown out by the high court and the consequence is that the Australian community is less safe.

We don’t want to make that mistake. We will work through this carefully.

The most important thing to understand from the high court’s ruling is that the high court has said that politicians don’t get to make that decision (indefinite detention).

And so politicians have previously been allowed to hold people in immigration detention for very long periods of time. The high court has told us that that’s not constitutional under these circumstances.

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Pat Dodson and other Indigenous politicians back focus on truth-telling after voice referendum failure

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Retiring senator says Labor will continue to consult Aboriginal communities as survey finds a majority of Australians would support truth-telling and treaty processes

Leading Indigenous politicians have backed calls for truth-telling to be prioritised after a major new survey found a majority of Australians would back such a process, despite the failure of the voice to parliament referendum.

The outgoing senator Pat Dodson said Labor would continue to consult with Indigenous communities on the future of the Uluru statement – keeping the door open to a Makarrata commission on truth-telling and treaty processes. The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, said she had heard great support for truth and treaty in her own post-referendum discussions, but these were not the only items on her agenda.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann back in the witness box as defamation case kicks off third day

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Former Liberal staffer’s defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson continues in the federal court. Follow the day’s news live

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has said the government is yet to decide how to best consult with First Nations people after the loss of the Indigenous voice referendum.

Burney was on RN Breakfast earlier and said today’s Closing the Gap meeting, the first since the referendum, would focus on the silver linings from the loss.

What we have seen is a group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people get involved in the political process.

We had 6 million Australians say yes. And the thing that really excited me about the outcome in places like the Tiwi Islands, where … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people wanted this change. And those votes are really important.

Education is the most powerful cause for good in this world, that is where you learn.

If you want to protest, do it on the weekend. School is on, we expect them to be there.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann ‘utterly destroyed’ by Ten broadcast, court told

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Former Liberal staffer is seeking ‘substantial’ damages over The Project broadcast, lawyer says. Follow today’s news live

More than 20 people have been arrested and charged following an unauthorised pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany overnight.

According to a statement from NSW police, about 400 people gathered at the protest. Police issued a move-on direction, which they say was not complied with.

The group continued to occupy Foreshore Road, blocking vehicle movement.

That just gives a really clear line drawn that if it’s labour hire, it’s covered, if it’s service contractors, it’s not.

In terms of the conversations with the crossbench, I continue to reach out to the crossbench [and] there’s a series of meetings that continue to happen.

They’ve made a decision that they don’t want to deal with this bill until next year. I would rather we were dealing with it over the next fortnight. We certainly will be dealing with it next week in the House of Representatives.

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