Labor has called on the government to clarify its position on an Indigenous voice to parliament, after it allocated $7.3m to what it called a “co-design of options” in Tuesday’s federal budget, and as Aboriginal legal and health groups criticised the budget for “punishing people in poverty”.

The co-design of a model to improve local and regional decision-making will, according to the budget papers, “involve engagement and consultation with Indigenous communities and organisations across Australia and is consistent with a recommendation of the joint select committee on constitutional recognition”.

Labor senator Pat Dodson, who co-chaired the joint committee, called on Scott Morrison to “come clean with First Nations people about his real position on a voice”.

“Having rejected the proposal that came from Uluru, this budget measure suggests he has changed his mind, or is simply trying to fool First Nations people into believing he supports a voice,” Dodson said.

“His position needs to be immediately clarified before the election.”

Key Aboriginal organisations have expressed anger and disappointment with the budget, criticising the $129m expansion of the controversial cashless welfare card and the lack of new funding for health and legal services.

The chief executive of the National Coalition of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, Donnella Mills, said she was frustrated none of its budget priorities had been included.

“We called for an increased base funding for our health organisations, and an increase in capital works and infrastructure. We need funds for housing, which is a vital key to good health, and we sought a strengthening of support for mental health,” Mills said.

The government set aside $461m for youth mental health but only $5m over four years is earmarked for addressing Indigenous youth suicide, recently described by suicide prevention campaigner Gerry Georgatos as a “moral and political abomination.”

Mills said: “We welcome $5m for suicide prevention. That amount is just a starting point, and we have no detail on how it will be allocated.

“How is that $5m going to get into communities? How is it going to address housing, family violence?

“The treasurer kept on about how we are geared towards surplus. I would hope there’d be room in [the] government’s thinking to address the unmet needs of the most vulnerable people in our communities.”

The Change the Record coalition – an Aboriginal-led group of human rights, health and legal organisations including Amnesty, Acoss, Oxfam and Reconciliation Australia – demanded the government commit to Aboriginal legal services and stop punishing people struggling to make ends meet.



Its co-chair, Damian Griffis, said poverty was directly linked to incarceration rates, especially for First Nations people with a disability.

“Sacrificing critical legal services and NDIS and punishing women through ParentsNext for a budget surplus is inhumane. These are our lives they are playing with.”

The government has decided to dismantle the Indigenous Legal Assistance Program, ending a 50-year commitment to a dedicated national program, and merge funding with mainstream legal services, days after the government’s independent review recommended retaining it.

The co-chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Cheryl Axleby, urged the attorney general to retain the program.

“Self-determination and community control is the only way that our legal services can be culturally safe and effective,” Axleby said. “We go above and beyond for our communities to get true justice.”

The government did reverse a planned cut of $16.7m over three years to Aboriginal legal services, but Griffis said “we were told we were not a priority”.

“Many of our peak representative bodies who provide critical culturally safe services, essential to pulling people out of poverty, were not even invited to the federal budget lock-up.”

The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples said it was pleased with the commitment of $453.1m for early childhood education, and $276.5m to Indigenous youth education.

But its chief executive, Gary Oliver, said the congress was concerned the budget documents were “vague in terms of implementation”.

“Simplistic measures such as school scholarships may be beneficial but are insufficient to overcome the structural challenges which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children face at school, including sharing our histories, languages and cultures.”

The congress also said it was disappointed at the expansion of the cashless debit card.

“The $128.8m spent on the trials over the next four years would be better used to fund vital health, education and support services which enhance Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ self-determination instead of taking it away,” Oliver said.

“The minister for Indigenous affairs’ budget press release boasts that the Indigenous Advancement Strategy has doubled the rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations deliver services. Our aim is not merely to increase the speed at which services are provided but to ensure that they are effective; that they enhance our self-determination; and that our peoples and organisations are granted the opportunity to use our expertise to remedy the challenges which we uniquely face and understand.”