Many were frustrated this week as the incendiary musings of returned One Nation senator Pauline Hanson dominated the agenda at the expense of other maiden speeches. McCarthy's powerful speech followed Hanson's but was largely overlooked. Malarndirri McCarthy, Ken Wyatt, Linda Burney, Pat Dodson and Jacqui Lambie at Parliament House. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "What was so powerful about Malarndirri's speech, and it was beautiful and really important, was the . . . embrace of everybody," Ms Burney, former NSW minister and now Labor's human services spokesperson, said. "I mean you had a hateful, inaccurate, old, frustrating speech prior but then Malarndirri spoke about her story, her father's side, Irish descent [and] her mum's side." Dodson, a Yawuru elder and known as the "Father of Reconciliation", said the attitudes underpinning One Nation's popularity have never gone away and had to be confronted "if you really want to unite Australia".

"Australians are smarter than this," Dodson said of ignorance and vilification. Lambie shares some of Hanson's hostility to Islam and did not criticise the Queenslander's first speech but praised McCarthy's as the one that mattered. "It does give other Indigenous people out there an opportunity and some hope in their bloody lives that they will make it and that is more important, more empowering than anything else that can come out of anybody else's mouth," she said, emphasising the importance of finding "common ground". Six years ago, there were no Aboriginal MPs in federal Parliament. Now there is representation from around the country, five symbols of the diversity of Australia's Indigenous nations. As well as influencing debate, Wyatt - of Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi heritage - said the group could support each other through stress and criticism. All have agreed to meet together again.

"I hope and think and believe that that's got to be good for this country," McCarthy, a Yanyuwa woman, said. Wyatt believes their presence has already shifted attitudes in Canberra towards Indigenous affairs. How politics fails Amid slow progress and mixed results on key planks of the government's Indigenous affairs platform - including the Closing the Gap framework and a referendum on constitutional recognition - the five MPs said politics had let down Aboriginal people. Wyatt, first elected in 2010 and now serving as the Turnbull government's assistant minister for health and aged care, criticised how the commitments of Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard had not yet translated into effective engagement.

"No Parliament has ever been tremendous at bipartisanship approaches that bring about genuine change," Wyatt said. He called for all federal MPs to meet with local Indigenous organisations for policy input instead of always relying only on prominent national leaders. "I'm often disappointed when I talk with delegations or Aboriginal community groups that come here and I ask them if they've talked to their federal member or senator," he said. "They say that they've issued invites but they've never seen their member." Dodson lamented the adversarial nature of Parliament for hindering consensus-building to solve complex problems. "You watch question time and you may as well read Mickey Mouse. Because it's a pantomime. It does very little to progress anything," he said.

Ms Burney said any bipartisan commitments require Indigenous input otherwise they can be a "rush to the bottom" and called for funding to be returned to key advocacy groups that are needed to "lobby, pressure, explain". The five MPs Ken Wyatt Liberal Party

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, MP for Hasluck

Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi heritage Liberal MP Ken Wyatt Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Linda Burney Labor Party

Shadow Minister for Human Services, MP for Barton

Wiradjuri heritage Labor's human services spokeswoman Linda Burney. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Pat Dodson Labor Party

Shadow Assistant Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Senator for WA

Yawuru heritage Malarndirri McCarthy Labor Party

Senator for NT

Yanyuwa heritage Senator Malarndirri McCarthy Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Jacqui Lambie Jacqui Lambie Network

Senator for Tasmania

Palawa heritage Senator Jacqui Lambie will be releasing her memoir in 2017. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen