In the shadow of a looming federal election, Australia’s prospect for meaningful Indigenous truth-telling appears increasingly remote. The resounding defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum has seen the nation turn its back on the trio of core principles enshrined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart: voice, treaty, and truth.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, despite boldly pledging to fully implement the Uluru Statement in his victory speech, has since retreated. The $20 million previously earmarked for a Makarrata Commission to oversee treaty negotiations and a national truth-telling process has evaporated from the federal budget. While paying lip service to the “principle” of Makarrata at the Garma Festival, Albanese stopped short of endorsing a formal truth and justice commission or committing to a treaty. This watered-down stance will define Labor’s position heading into the election.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, emboldened by the referendum result, has assumed an even harder line against the Uluru Statement. Branding the failed Voice campaign a “$450 million outrage,” Dutton vowed that under a Coalition government, there will be “no Makarrata” and “no revisiting of truth-telling.” Instead, he has doubled down on the politics of division, insisting on unquestioning celebration of Anzac Day and Australia Day as the bedrock of national unity.
One Flag at a Time
Dutton’s inflammatory declaration that he will refuse to stand before the Aboriginal flag at press conferences if elected spotlights his determination to weaponize Indigenous issues for political gain. “I just don’t think that we can be a united nation and a unified nation without the thought of standing behind anything other than one flag,” he asserted. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price swiftly endorsed this stance, underscoring the Coalition’s strategic pivot to exploit the disaffection of ‘no’ voters.
While the electoral fate of Dutton and Price remains uncertain, their polarizing rhetoric is calculated to resonate with a constituency that internal party polling suggests will deliver votes. By marginalizing Indigenous Australians and tarring opponents as captive to “woke” interests, Dutton aims to bury First Nations concerns. In his vision for Australia, Indigenous people secure inclusion through invisibility, their unique status erased lest it imperil an imagined national unity.
Faint Glimmers Amid the Gloom
With the Albanese government abdicating its leadership on truth-telling and treaty-making to the states and territories, the current outlook is decidedly mixed. South Australia, where a state-level Indigenous Voice to Parliament has been legislated and elected, and Victoria, with its 2018 treaty legislation and Yoorook Justice Commission, stand out as rare bright spots. But beyond the realm of politics, countless local and regional truth-telling initiatives are already underway through churches, schools, hospitals, libraries, galleries, museums, and universities.
Yet given the prevailing “hardness” gripping Australian politics, epitomized by the belief that the constitution belongs exclusively to non-Indigenous Australians, it is tempting to abandon the federal arena altogether on matters of truth and treaty. But as Indigenous voices from the Uluru Dialogues attest, this is simply not a viable path forward. The unmet call for a National Resting Place in Canberra serves as but one powerful example of the enduring need for a federal reckoning.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu … taught me many years ago [that] you know when you’re being told the truth, because the truth burns. And truth is very much an Aboriginal value and the Torres Strait Islander value, across the country.
– Prof Marcia Langton
Australia’s journey to Indigenous truth-telling promises to be long and arduous, forever vulnerable to shifting political winds. But the inextinguishable importance of truth to First Nations people means this duty can never be set aside. For all its imperfections, the federal stage retains an unrivaled capacity to drive lasting change, as Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations made plain. Faced with a nation grown “hard,” champions of truth must summon still greater resolve in the battles to come.
