This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labor will abolish the “discriminatory, punitive and ineffective” community development program as part of a reconciliation action plan to increase opportunities for Indigenous Australians, Senator Pat Dodson has announced.

Labor’s Indigenous caucus unveiled the plan on the second day of its 48th national conference. Dodson and the party’s leader, Bill Shorten, promised to make Labor “the party of choice for first Australians” by boosting representation and delivering a voice to parliament.

Labor party senator for the Northern Territory Malarndirri McCarthy described the reconciliation action plan as a reflection of “systemic change” in the party, while MP Linda Burney promised it would introduce practical measures to ensure Indigenous Australians had a voice in the Labor party, parliament and Australian society.

Shorten said Labor was not the only party to have advanced Indigenous rights, but had “been in the lead more often than not”. He cited Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations as part of a compact not just to redress past wrongs but to “do better in the future”.

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Shorten promised to make Indigenous Australians’ policy priorities “a national political issue” through a voice, a makarrata treaty-making commission and a “genuine partnership” to close the gap in measures of Indigenous disadvantage.

On Sunday Shorten told the conference a voice for Indigenous Australians in the constitution would be “Labor’s first priority for constitutional change”, in effect committing to a voice before moving towards Australia becoming a republic.

On Monday Shorten rejected the view that closing the gap might constitute a “special advantage” for Indigenous Australians, explaining that the government aimed to “redress an imbalance” for those who “don’t start equally in life”.

Dodson announced Labor would abolish the CDP, a program unions and welfare groups have argued is “blatantly discriminatory” because 83% of its 35,000 participants are Indigenous, and it imposes higher requirements than the work for the dole scheme does. As a condition of income support, remote-area participants must engage in up to 25 hours of work activities a week.

Dodson said Labor would replace the CDP with a new program to be “co-designed” with First Nations people and restore the principle of “community control and direction”.

The two-year reconciliation action plan includes cultural sensitivity training for Labor staff, facilitating networking for First Nations people through Labor events, and aiming to boost Indigenous outcomes in employment and contracting.

Dodson also called for a push to get more Indigenous Australians on the electoral roll so they can vote for constitutional recognition in a referendum.

Shorten said the plan was “greater than the sum of its parts” and recognised that the “only way” Labor could earn the privilege of being the party of choice of Indigenous Australians was by boosting representation in Labor ranks.

Unions and welfare groups welcomed the proposed abolition of the CDP and measures to improve Indigenous representation.

The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Michele O’Neil, described the CDP as “an appalling example of state-sanctioned racial discrimination and worker exploitation”.

“Australia will be a better place without it,” she said.

O’Neil added the union movement would “continue to campaign to ensure that workers in remote communities are not exploited, are given access to paid job opportunities and that remote communities are given back financial autonomy”.

The chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Services, Cassandra Goldie, said it was “a great day when the alternative government has committed to self-determination for First Nations peoples”.