Prime Minister outlines Indigenous Affairs agenda

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The second day of this years Garma festival is underway and it has begun with a keynote address from the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

Transcript

00:00Hi, Lorna. Yes, I'm joining you from Gulkala, which is the sacred land of the Ghumaj clan

00:07up here in northeast Arnhem Land. As you said, the Prime Minister has just finished his keynote

00:14address, which is always a hotly anticipated moment for the festival. In terms of what

00:18he outlined for the path forward for Indigenous Affairs, we are seeing the government make

00:23a move away from what has dominated the agenda for the past couple of years, particularly

00:28up here at Garma. That has been the voice, treaty and truth message. Now, while the Prime

00:34Minister did say that he remains committed to Makarrata and he supports the truth-telling

00:40and treaty processes being undertaken by the states and territories, there's no overarching

00:45direction on a federal level for those things. Instead, the government is pivoting towards

00:51what they're calling economic development. And this is an interesting move. The government

00:56intends to bring Indigenous Australians in as part of the Future Made in Australia Act,

01:02which is really the government's headline policy across politics that they've been prosecuting

01:08so far this year. But in terms of announcements under Indigenous Affairs or a banner announcement

01:15under Indigenous Affairs, that wasn't made here today. The Prime Minister is saying he

01:21wants to close the gap. He says we can and we must close the gap. But in terms of actual

01:27funding policy announcements there, there wasn't much as part of this speech. Instead,

01:32there were some individual announcements to things like the Yothu Yindi Foundation here

01:36to build the Garma Institute, which will be a tertiary university education space owned

01:44by the Yolngu people. And there's also been investments in things like housing. But there

01:51are certainly still some gaps in that agenda. But the Prime Minister also took responsibility

01:58for the loss of the referendum here today, saying that they failed to reach the benchmark

02:03that they had set for themselves. But his passion for Indigenous Affairs continues.

02:08Let's have a listen to what he had to say.

02:11You have kept the fire burning. You have kept the faith. And my government will keep faith

02:19with you. My colleagues and I came to Garma to renew our commitment to a better future

02:26for First Nations people. We will leave here more determined than ever to bring it into

02:33being.

02:34So, Dana, the other news from Garma today is this apology from the anti-police commissioner.

02:42What's he going to say?

02:45Yes, so the police commissioner, Michael Murphy, spoke this morning to our ABC colleague, Dan

02:51Borsha, alongside Leanne Little, who is the most senior Aboriginal person in the Northern

02:57Territory Police Force. We understand what he's going to make is an apology to Indigenous

03:03Australians for the impacts of Northern Territory policing on communities over the last 154

03:09years. It is a really seismic shift of mindset from the Northern Territory Police Force.

03:16And the police commissioner said today that the decision was really brought about, the

03:20catalyst for that was made through the evidence that he heard as part of the Kumunjai Walker

03:25inquest. Kumunjai Walker, of course, died by the hands of police in Yundamoo in 2019.

03:32And that inquest brought about lots of evidence of, you know, concerns around what was happening

03:37in Northern Territory police and the attitudes that were being directed towards Indigenous

03:41Australians. Commissioner Michael Murphy is expected to address the conference later today.

03:48But let's take a listen now to what he had to say to Dan Borsha earlier this morning.

03:54Cultural reform is probably the hardest work to be done. And can I just say that an apology

03:59or a recognition of the past is only the start. It's not the answer. It's not the solution.

04:04But it's a way forward. And it's about owning that. And it's in the right direction to have

04:10the healing process and the reconciliation, the conversation, to be honest, about the

04:14past and where we need to go to in the future. The role of commissioner, any commissioner

04:18in Australian policing is incredibly difficult. But it's about having the courage. It's the

04:23right time to do it. You know, there's always time, you can always put things off to say

04:27it's not the right time. It is. We have to do something. The most important thing is

04:31we need to translate that into action. That's not just words, we can actually do some things

04:35to change the culture and to change how people think and how we because we can't keep doing

04:39the same thing because we're just going to keep getting the same results. And that hasn't

04:42worked. Police Commissioner Michael Murphy there speaking to ABC News ahead of his address

04:48here at the Garma Festival later today, where he'll apologise for racism and the impacts

04:53of the Northern Territory Police on Indigenous Australians.

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