Thorpe Calls Out Gaslighting Albanese, as He Abandons Makarrata Truth-Telling Reform

When Anthony Albanese took the prime ministership on 23 May 2022, he’d repeatedly promised in the lead up to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in entirety, which he’d confirmed in parliament on 14 February that year, comprised of “three generous requests: voice, truth, treaty”.

And within the first paragraph of his 21 May 2022 victory speech, he said, “I commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full”, and he later flagged that this process would begin with a referendum on “a voice enshrined in our constitution”.

Yet, this body of First Nations representatives, who were to provide advice to government on Indigenous affairs, was not supported by many staunch Aboriginal political actors, as its advice was nonbinding, and parliament could ignore it.

The 14 October 2023 referendum to progress the voice was voted down, which was due in large part to a campaign run by the Liberal Nationals opposition, which suggested it would be all too influential, so 60 percent of the country ended up voting against a body that might provide too much power.

But those same Aboriginal actors that had been taking the Voice proposition as something of a ruse were keen on progressing a Makarrata Commission that would undertake a truth-telling process, which would then inform the final stage of treatymaking.

While Blak Sovereign Senator Lidia Thorpe began calling out Albanese last February over his abandonment of truth-telling and treaty, and after the way he’s recently dealt with questions in regard to establishing a Makarrata Commission, she’s now accused the PM of gaslighting the nation.

An expert in lighting the flame

At this year’s Garma festival, the largest First Nations cultural gathering on the calendar, which takes place every August in Arnhem Land, Albanese wasn’t the politician who at last year spoke of moving forward with the Voice, but rather he’d abandoned the Uluru Statement process all together.

This was despite having said in opposition on 5 August 2021, that the “statement contains another of the great keys with which we can unlock our potential going forward – a Makarrata Commission, which would oversee a national process of truth-telling, agreement-making and treatymaking”.

“It will be established through a process of open nominations and review,” the federal Labor leader said, and he added that the commission would “facilitate local truth-telling and advise on a national framework for treatymaking, and it will work with a voice to parliament”.

But something odd occurred when Insiders host David Speers interviewed Albanese at Garma on 4 August, as when quizzed about the meaning of a Makarrata process, it no longer involved a truth-telling process, but rather it’s now merely “a coming together of people through engagement”.

And further, not only does the Makarrata no longer refer to a body purposed to expose the truth of British colonisation, but there’s no commission for national treatymaking either, because, according to the PM, one was never proposed, rather he’d only ever meant to rely on state level treatymaking.

Leaving the gap to widen

Thorpe opposed the voice as a powerless body that wouldn’t have advanced self-determination, as she considered a small group of government-appointed Aboriginal people providing advice on issues that specifically related to First Peoples only, which could then be ignored.

The Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator has explained the importance of truth-telling to take place prior to any treatymaking process to Sydney Criminal Lawyers in the past, which is due to Australia having been founded on a series of lies that often still prevail as truth in the public sphere.

The British based their takeover of the continent on the doctrine of terra nullius: that the land was there for the taking because there were no sovereign peoples. And another key falsehood is the concept that with the coming of the British, Aboriginal people just peacefully vacated the land.

Negotiations clouded by falsehoods like these would not produce a fair treaty, as the nation must come to grips with the genocide, ethnic cleansing, the usurping of land, the rounding up of First Peoples and placing them in camps controlled by the authorities and the stealing of their children.

But Albanese doesn’t want to discuss this with the First Peoples who have never ceded their lands. Rather the PM, who once cut a hard left, rights-forwarding thinking figure, has now been revealed to have a colonial mindset, comfortable with existing disparities and overly concerned about votes.

Thorpe further points out that while the PM’s been busy rewriting history, three more Aboriginal deaths in custody transpired within the space of a week, while this year’s Closing the Gap figures show that rates of First Nations incarceration, forced child removals and suicides are all on the rise.

“This is such blatant gaslighting from the prime minister,” Thorpe made clear in a 9 August statement.

“There are clear records that Labor was proposing a formal Makarrata Commission, not just some wishy-washy idea. They even committed money to it in the budget,” the senator said, referring to his Insiders performance. “It’s bizarre and arrogant that Albanese thinks he can get away with this lie.”

Keeping to the right

New minister for Indigenous affairs Malarndirri McCarthy further told the Senate last week, that the Albanese government had learnt from the Voice referendum process and due to that loss, it is refusing to progress the idea of a Makarrata Commission without bipartisan approval.

Yet, this admission was further confusing in itself as again in the Senate, the Makarrata Commission was being spoken of as a body that could undertake the process of truth-telling about this country, which in turn would create a more level playing field from which to negotiate a treaty.

And this was despite Albanese, just one week before, having told Speers that Makarrata is simply “a coming together of people through engagement”, which involves various “forums that are held”, “different bodies”, as well as “Land Councils” and “Native Title Tribunals”.

“It means engaging with First Nations people right around the country,” the prime minister added, as he tossed his whole commitment to progressing the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to the wind.

But it does bring to mind a few statements that Anthony Albanese said during a 2GB Radio interview on Christmas Day last year, which had been covering the achievements of the past year, until the host then referred to the loss that the prime minister had suffered at the referendum.

“Oh no, no, no, very important, good to call that out,” the PM jumped in to prevent the idea that he had suffered a loss from being progressed. “I’m not Indigenous. So, it wasn’t a loss to me, that stays exactly the same way it is.”

“I do think that it was disappointing for First Nations people, but they’re used to… hardship,” he actually gracelessly went on to say. “It’s been the case for 200 years, and they are resilient, and we will continue to do what we can to provide for closing the gap.”

“It’s one of the things about this debate, it was never about politicians, it was actually about the most disadvantaged people in our society.”