Voice question should have been split, Wyatt says

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Former Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt says the Voice referendum was too complicated and should have split out the question of recognition as he called on national cabinet to urgently focus on closing the gap and reviewing billions in annual Indigenous spending.

One of the key conservative supporters of the October referendum – which was rejected by 60 per cent of Australians and rapidly faded as a point of political debate – said many Indigenous Australians and their leaders were still grieving but he hoped deep frustration and rejection would lead to fresh ideas.

Ken Wyatt says it will be viewed as a historic shame that two separate questions were not asked in the referendum.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The Indigenous leadership across this nation should take the position that we’ve had many setbacks over the 230-odd years of this nation and the setback of the referendum is not the endpoint,” Wyatt said in an interview.

“Change has to happen in this nation. We cannot continue for another 50 years without seeing pragmatic results on the ground. We cannot tolerate the gaps.”

National cabinet and a new federal taskforce focused on failures to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage should “bite the bullet and deal with the targets in a very concerted, pragmatic way,” Wyatt said.

Chief Voice proponents including Noel Pearson have not spoken publicly since the October 14 poll. Labor has not released new policies to reverse dire health, education and criminal justice statistics despite Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney hinting at new announcements on referendum night.

In his first interview since the referendum, Wyatt gave the most frank public appraisal of the Voice campaign by any of its proponents.

Regional and local voices should have been legislated before a referendum to prove their value and operation, he argued, as previously advocated by figures including Wyatt, academic Marcia Langton and former Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Wyatt said it would be viewed as a historic shame that two separate questions were not asked: one on symbolic recognition in the Constitution of the unique status of First Australians and the other on the Indigenous advisory body to parliament.

“People I spoke to said had it been recognition I would have agreed to it but I wasn’t comfortable with an enshrined Voice,” Wyatt said, adding the entire Yes movement, including himself, bore blame for the outcome.

“The quagmire that developed wasn’t responded to. The quicksands of uncertainty became the glue that lost the vote.

“We’ve got to remember that referendums are the toughest campaign to win unless you have absolute clarity and can answer with precision and provide people with a strong sense of comfort that this … doesn’t impact, as I heard somebody say, on their backyards.

“I think there was a high degree of confidence that this would get over the line, even if it was in the low 50s. I don’t think too many people turned their minds, and this is the majority of those within the parliament, [to] what was plan B should this fail?”

Indigenous leaders at the landmark 2017 Uluru convention rejected symbolic recognition and opted for a more powerful form of reconciliation in the Voice.

The Turnbull and Morrison-era minister – who previously lashed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for negative referendum tactics and quit the Liberal Party in April – raised internal concerns earlier this year about divisions within the Yes campaign.

“If there hadn’t been four groups in the Yes camp, would the outcome have been different?” he said.

The West Australian was horrified to hear a politician tell him privately the resounding referendum defeat meant political leaders at different levels of government would be scared of the electoral implications of proposing Indigenous advancement policies.

Wyatt said the crushing loss necessitated a new approach to Indigenous affairs.

Nearly 30 per cent of the tens of billions of dollars spent on Indigenous Australians each year was absorbed by administrative costs, he said, while the outcomes of spending audits were often ignored.

“So the perception Australians have is that all this money goes into Aboriginal affairs, but we’re seeing no change,” he said. “Historically, funding has been given to individuals to run significant programs, but they’ve never been reviewed.”

While devastating Aboriginal Australians, Wyatt said the referendum had the positive effect of heightening awareness of Indigenous disadvantage and spawning the next generation of Indigenous leaders he said could enter parliament, including Dean Parkin and Rachel Perkins.

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