Linda Burney has skirted around a question about $5.8million in funding set aside for a treaty with a scripted response quoting NRL star Johnathan Thurston.
The answer in Question Time on Tuesday has prompted questions from the Opposition about whether Ms Burney is ‘up for the task of being a Minister’.
Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley asked the Indigenous Affairs Minister whether Labor still stands by the funding allocated toward the Makarrata Commission.
As outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, ‘Makarrata’ would be a special body that would seek a treaty between the Federal government and First Nations communities.
Ms Ley asked for clarification on ‘what exactly [the commission] would do’.
Ms Burney did not address the question, instead reading from a prepared response about the principles of the Voice to Parliament.
She then quoted Indigenous footballer Thurston, who supports the referendum.
‘In the words of NRL legend Johnathan Thurston, our young people deserve a chance to be their best,’ Ms Burney said.
‘That’s what the Voice is about. Vote Yes for unity, hope and to make a positive difference.’
Ms Ley argued that Ms Burney was not answering her question. ‘This (the question) was very tight,’ she said. ‘One issue, and one issue only.’
Ms Burney directed discussion back toward the referendum later this year, which will ask Australians to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
‘The 2023 referendum is about constitutional recognition. About the Voice. Australians will be asked a simple question,’ she said.
Ms Burney then went on to describe the key principles of the proposed Voice – that the committee will be comprised of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, elected by their own communities.
Later speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Ley said Ms Burney’s response was concerning.
‘I was disappointed in Linda Burney, and honestly it made me question if she is up to the task of being a Minister,’ Ms Ley said.
‘I know it is not just me who is thinking that.’
Ms Ley questioned why ‘time and time again, she refused to confirm if she was still committed to Makarrata even as the taxpayer, at her direction, is ploughing millions of dollars into it’.
Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley has expressed doubts about whether Linda Burney ‘is up to the task of being a Minister’ after she skirted around a question about the $5.8million of funding set aside for treaty-making and truth-telling
At the conclusion of Question Time, Ms Ley said: ‘The Albanese Government is being tricky on the Voice, tricky on the Treaty and tricky on Makarrata and given the chance to justify their approach Minister Burney hid from scrutiny.
‘What we saw today was not acceptable and not the standard we should accept from a minister of any government.’
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged a total of $27million to the Makarrata Commission.
So far, $5.8million has been directly allocated, in the October mini-Budget.
Ms Burney directed discussion back toward the referendum later this year, which will ask Australians to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
She quoted Indigenous NRL star Johnathan Thurston, who supports the Voice
Meanwhile in the Senate, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was also questioned about Labor’s position on treaty, answering on behalf of Ms Burney.
South Australian Senator Kerryanne Liddle quoted Voice architect, professor Megan Davis, who described the Voice as an ‘enabling mechanism for a treaty’.
‘Is she correct?’ Ms Liddle asked.
In a similar vein to the treaty responses in the House of Representatives, Ms Gallagher referred back to the key principles.
‘The government has been very clear about the question that will be put to the people,’ she said.
It marked the second day in a row that questions of treaty have dominated Question Time, after several Opposition politicians asked the same questions of the government on Monday.
The ‘culmination of the agenda’ from the Uluru Statement is a ‘Makarrata Commission’ which would seek a treaty between the government and First Nations communities. Pictured: The Uluru Statement from the Heart
A treaty with Aboriginal Australians is controversial as it could potentially lead to substantial financial compensation from taxpayers, private land being handed over, and the formal recognition of perceived historic wrongs.
The Makarrata Commission would seek a treaty between the federal Government and the First Nations community.
It would have the ‘authority to facilitate the process of treaty-making and truth telling’ between the two groups, according to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Mr Albanese outlined the responsibilities of such a future commission in a statement on November 15, 2021 . After winning the May 2022 federal election, he declared the new Labor government would adopt the Uluru Statement of the Heart ‘in full’.
He said at the time: ‘As called for in the Uluru Statement, the Makarrata Commission will have responsibilities for overseeing processes for Treaty-Making and Truth-Telling.
‘The Makarrata Commission will be independent… and will work with a Voice to Parliament when it is established.’
Responsibilities of the commission would ‘initially’ include consulting with First Nations communities, recommending a ‘framework for federal treaty-making’ and, crucially, delivering a report within the first term of a Labor government.
By that schedule, the commission will have had to be established and had enough time to consult the community and deliberate by 2025, when the next election is due.
Mr Albanese said $26.5million would be allocated to the commission in the first two years to ‘support truth-telling projects’, and he hoped state, territory and local governments would match that funding.
