Albanese government urged revive Indigenous Affairs agenda or risk ‘obliteration' for Aboriginal culture
Former senator Pat Dodson has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to revive his government's stalled Indigenous Affairs agenda, warning that Aboriginal people risk being culturally erased.
'If you don't participate, you'll end up being the subject and the property of the assimilationists,' Mr Dodson, long hailed as the father of reconciliation, told ABC's 7.30 on Monday night.
'That's what the new assimilation is about — completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape.
'If you looked at what they were talking about in the opposition at the last election, getting rid of land councils, revising a whole range of symbolism, throw out the Welcome to Country, get rid of the flags, rescind the ambassador.
'Anything that indicates the presence of Aboriginal people would have gone. That's what the new assimilation is about, completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape.
'Cultural heritage is another very important aspect of that. The more you smash and destroy the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people, the greater it is to say well there is no substantive argument to say that they had any presence here, because there's no evidence, they've blown it up.'
Mr Dodson, a Yawuru man from Broome who retired from parliament in early 2024, urged the Albanese government to recommit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
While last year's Voice referendum failed, the other two pillars, treaty and truth-telling, remain on the table. It is now time for Labor to pursue this after claiming a landslide victory earlier this month, Mr Dodson says.
'They can do that because it doesn't require a constitutional referendum. It can be done by way of legislation,' he continued.
He also called on Labor to revisit the Calma-Langton model — a network of regional Indigenous bodies proposed under the Morrison government — as a path forward for local decision-making.
'Whether they call it a Voice or whether they call it a regional assembly ... but an entity and that entity will have to be representative of the regional people,' he said.
'That way we can start to manage the awful incarceration rates of young people and the underlying circumstances that's given rise to that.'
Mr Dodson admitted he was disappointed by the Prime Minister's decision to pull back from reconciliation efforts following the failed referendum, but understood it politically.
'I think Albanese was smart not to drink from the poisoned chalice,' he said. 'He had to do that.'
Dodson's own role in the campaign was limited by cancer treatment. He left federal politics shortly after the referendum, a result he described as personally devastating.
'I felt the sadness,' he said. 'We saw a response at the poll that I think shocked many of us, many people felt gutted … I thought time will heal this.'
He believes resistance to the Voice stemmed from a deeper discomfort in acknowledging Indigenous sovereignty.
'We don't know how to recognise Aboriginal peoples as sovereign peoples, because we fear this will undermine our own sovereignty,' he said. 'They think this is something about (Indigenous Australians) getting something better or more than they might be getting.'
Dodson said constitutional reform via referendum will likely remain out of reach due to the requirement for a national majority and support in a majority of states.
'We're never going to see a provision put forward to support Aboriginal people be successful,' he said.
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