Minister for Indigenous Australians says ‘we have to be pragmatic’ about recognition

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Ken Wyatt says he’s on the brink of producing a concrete proposal to legislate a voice to parliament, and insists a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution needs to happen before the next federal election.

The minister for Indigenous Australians told the ABC on Thursday he was about to take “a series of propositions to do with constitutional recognition, the voice and truth telling” to Scott Morrison, and he planned to meet with other Indigenous parliamentarians next week to try and achieve consensus.

Wyatt said he had not convinced Indigenous leaders to accept a legislated voice to parliament instead of a constitutionally enshrined representative body, which was the proposal from the Uluru statement. But he said bringing forward a proposal would “start a process”.

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Asked whether failing to pursue the voice model outlined in the Uluru statement would break a lot of hearts, Wyatt said “we have to be pragmatic and that’s a reality”.

The minister said a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in the constitution needed to happen before the next federal election because it was “important we have this pristine space in which the question can be put”. He said putting the recognition question at the election could have unintended consequences.

Wyatt said the precise form of Indigenous recognition in the constitution, the wording, would be “worked through with our people” but it should not foster division in the community.

The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg – who has been a stronger supporter of Wyatt’s efforts – has argued an Indigenous voice to parliament should be formed by a network of Indigenous communities across the country, in a “bottom-up” approach that would ensure First Nation voices had a direct say to parliament.

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In a speech at the beginning of the month, Bragg proposed a voice to parliament building on the “Speaking for Country” model put forward in a paper written by the former chair of the government’s Indigenous advisory council Warren Mundine.

Under this proposal, once the local groups had been formed, the various bodies would then voluntarily affiliate to create a national body that would facilitate communication between the national parliament and government and the local Indigenous peoples.

Wyatt appeared to echo that proposal on Thursday when he signalled the model he was working on would roll in pre-existing representatives bodies in the regions.

The former chief justice Murray Gleeson has argued “a constitutionally entrenched but legislatively controlled” capacity for Indigenous people to have input into the making of laws about Indigenous people or Indigenous affairs should not be a controversial idea.

But a move by Wyatt earlier in this year to put the voice back on the national agenda sparked an immediate backlash inside the government, with conservatives resisting the proposal even if the voice sat outside the constitution.

Liberal Craig Kelly told Guardian Australia setting up separate structures, even if the representative model was legislated, risked creating “a reverse form of what South Africa was a few years ago”.