U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has met with Australia’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney to discuss the road to reconciliation for Australia’s Aboriginal communities.
Haaland, a Native American woman from the southwest United States, visited Parliament House in Canberra at the end of a weeklong trip to Australia.
The centre-left Albanese Labor government is proposing to hold a referendum sometime this year on whether to insert an Indigenous Voice to Parliament that would involve inserting a clause into the Constitution that would set up an almost-permanent Indigenous advisory body to the two houses of Parliament.
Haaland Emphasises Biden Admin’s Work With Indigenous Communities
Haaland refused to weigh into Australia’s debate surrounding the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, saying it’s a “foreign matter.”But she did point to the Biden administration’s efforts in trying to include more Indigenous voices in their policymaking.
Haaland said U.S President Joe Biden was working hard to ensure Native Americans had a “seat at the table” of the government and his administration.
“For our part we will continue just to work hard and do what we can to make sure that we’re upholding those responsibilities.”
Haaland also said that both the United States and Australia shared a “tragic history” around the abuse of Indigenous people.
But the secretary added that she was “heartened” to see how the Australian government “much like the United States government is working to reconcile the past with open hearts and meaningful support.”
Haaland also noted that Indigenous knowledge was valuable in “this era that we’re in with climate change.”
“Here in Australia, back home in the United States and all around the world Indigenous communities have stewarded our lands and waters since time immemorial,” she noted.
Australian Opposition Says ‘Voice’ Destined to Fail
Following the meeting, Burney asked the federal opposition leader Peter Dutton to “stay engaged” in the debate.Despite a “constructive” meeting with the referendum working group for the Voice, Dutton has maintained that the referendum is on track to be defeated.
“And that’s because the prime minister’s had this half-hearted effort in relation to just not explaining the detail, not being across the detail.”
“I think it’s tough for a lot of Australians when they’re being asked to make a change to the Constitution—our nation’s founding document—and yet they don’t have the detail from our prime minister.”
Meanwhile, Country National Senator Jacinta Price launched the Fair Australia campaign in opposition to the Voice saying it was “pitting Australians against each other.”
“We can see that the Voice means–and already is–dividing us,” she said in a newsletter to supporters on Friday.
“It means elevating one race of people and giving them a separate body with powers over the rest of us.”
She said the legislation “does nothing to help vulnerable Australians, instead starting the country on a pathway to treaties and splintered sovereignty.”
“The Voice does nothing to address the real problems. It offers no real solutions, just an expensive sub-Parliament of activists and politicians claiming to speak for an entire race,” she added.
“It’s a dangerous road to take, and once you’re on, there’s no turnoff.”
