Law expert says Indigenous voice to parliament the most meaningful change as government tries to ‘refresh’ failing targets

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The federal government is calling for more Indigenous consultation in its “refresh” of the failing Closing the Gap targets but it has already rejected the most important mechanism to do so, an Indigenous voice to parliament, a constitutional law expert has said.

Prof Megan Davis, who is also head of the University of New South Wales’s Indigenous Law Centre, said the government’s plan to “refresh” the targets reflects its own aspirations rather than those of Indigenous people.

Ten years on from the launch of the Closing the Gap strategy to reduce Indigenous disadvantage just one target – to halve the gap in year 12 attainment – is on track.

Four of the seven targets will expire in 2018 and Australian governments have agreed to work with Indigenous groups on renewed targets, with the Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, releasing a discussion paper on a “refreshed agenda”.

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Scullion said the original targets were developed without adequately consulting Indigenous people and without the direct involvement of state and territory governments, “which meant targets were not as effective or as well directed as they should have been”.

But Davis told ABC radio on Tuesday the messages coming from the discussion paper were “highly prescriptive” and aligned with federal government policy that Indigenous people disagreed with.

Indigenous communities had already delivered a “sophisticated roadmap to closing the gap” during constitutional reform dialogues leading up to the Uluru conference, she said.

The Uluru “statement from the heart” proposed a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous voice to parliament and was backed up and formally recommended to government by the prime minister’s referendum council.

“People aren’t looking for refresh as a priority ... The priority is structural reform, it’s constitutional recognition,” Davis said. “That is because of the importance that kind of constitutional recognition provides to Indigenous populations … in terms of the kind of political legitimacy that is required to influence public institutions.”

The voice to parliament proposal was rejected by Turnbull, who claimed it would fail at a referendum – despite polling showing it had support. Turnbull also said it was a new and undiscussed concept despite cabinet papers this week revealing it was discussed in federal government 25 years ago.

Scullion has long rejected calls for targets on reducing Indigenous incarceration but they are reportedly under consideration in the refresh. The minister has also flagged an interest in home ownership targets and other indicators focusing on prosperity.



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Davis said introducing prosperity indicators within a narrow economic framework was more reflective of the government’s aspirations than those of Indigenous people.

A coalition of Indigenous bodies wrote to Scullion in the new year, criticising the discussion paper for containing foregone conclusions and rushing into reform without adequately consulting people.

Davis said the letter reflected the concerns raised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people during last year’s constitutional reform dialogues.

“That is to say that government often forges ahead with very prescriptive ideas of what they want in terms of reform, and then they consult after the fact,” she told ABC radio. “The first question should be: do communities actually want a refresh, do they want to rebrand Closing the Gap?”

Teela Reid, a Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman and lawyer who was part of the constitutional dialogues process, said revelations that senator Patrick Dodson had been excluded from Broome’s Closing the Gap consultation meeting on the grounds he was a member of parliament were galling, given Turnbull had accused her of not having faith in Indigenous senators to represent Indigenous people.