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Sky News AU
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Indigenous leaders say Uluru town at centre of Voice Referendum is still waiting for housing after 10 years, as bureaucracy stymies growth
Leaders from the community at the foot of Uluru say the federal government has forgotten them since the Voice to Parliament referendum. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled with the Canberra press pack to Uluru in the final days of the referendum campaign in 2023, urging Australians to vote Yes. But the cameras weren't taken to Mutitjulu, the community at the foot of the rock, which is home to between 350 and 400 people. Leaders from the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation told Sky News the community was in desperate need of infrastructure upgrades, but attempts to improve facilities were often caught up in bureaucratic red tape. 'I personally think Mutitjulu has been left behind,' MCAC chief executive Rob Drew told Sky News when we visited the community. 'Where we're standing basically was the original campground for Ayres Rock when it was Ayres Rock and that's all it ever was designed for and we've got a community around that now and the facilities haven't stayed up with it, the infrastructure hasn't stayed up with it. 'Even though there are plans to rectify that, it takes a long time for this stuff to get some guernseys and get put into the ground.' MCAC chair Dorethea Randall said the community had waited a decade for 12 new houses. 'Behind us is housing that's we've waited over 10 years for, but even longer when we've been pushing for more housing over 20 years,' she said. Ms Randall said many people from nearby homelands and smaller communities were moving to Mutitjulu to access services, but they were not keeping up. She said even when the housing under construction was finished the community would need another 12 houses to service their needs. 'Housing is really crucial because it's a foundation of where the core problem starts,' she said. Mr Drew said applying for grants and funding was a bureaucratic nightmare, pointing out the community had to seek approval from different organisations and government departments including Parks Australia, the Office of Township Leasing and the Central Land Council. 'Some of the processes you've got to go through for funding are just horrendously ridiculous, and then the acquittals behind that, so if you've gone for a grant of $30,000 you spend that nearly in administration,' he said. 'With the layers of bureaucracy that we have got to contend with here in Mutitjulu it just adds to the complexity and it slows projects to the point where they stop and they don't proceed.' Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Kerrynne Liddle said the barriers faced by the Mutitjulu community were unacceptable. 'It would be unacceptable anywhere in Australia for people to be waiting 10 years for houses to be built that were promised, and we have to ask ourselves, where are the roadblocks here,' she said. Senator Liddle said she was determined to cut through the red tape that was slowing progress for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. 'I will resist at every opportunity, the building of a black bureaucracy,' she said. While the Northern Territory's Aboriginal communities voted strongly in favour of the voice, the voter turnout in many communities was less than 50 per cent. 'The community, not everybody was aware. There was a lack of information delivered down to understand what it was all about,' Ms Randall said. They're now calling for less talk and more action. 'People tick the box for consultation, but where's the action?' Mr Drew said. 'Too much whitefella talk and no action is really what the feedback is from the local people.' Ms Randall invited Mr Albanese to visit the community and see their issues for himself. 'In the future, yes, we would like to see him actually in Mutitjulu,' she said. Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy was contacted for comment.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Dutton flip-flops on proposals for three separate referendums if Coalition wins election
Peter Dutton has floated – then quickly walked back – proposals for three separate referendums if he wins office, shutting down ideas he had raised to change the constitution for Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals. The opposition leader had told The Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that he was open to referendums on the three issues if there could be bipartisanship found with the Labor party. 'I hope at some stage there will be common ground,' Dutton told the newspaper. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But when quizzed at a press conference in Sydney's west on day two of the election campaign, Dutton denied those constitutional changes were high on his agenda. After helping lead the no case against Labor's referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament, Dutton also shrugged off questions about how he would get Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to support a push for symbolic constitutional recognition – an approach rejected by successive Indigenous-led referendum processes. Dutton has now twice proposed, and twice shot down, his own proposal for a referendum on Indigenous recognition. 'There will be no referendum until there's a position of bipartisanship, and clearly there's no bipartisanship on this issue, and there will be no referendum over the course of the next term of parliament. The prime minister [Anthony Albanese] has made that very clear,' Dutton said. Albanese on Sunday repeated his previous comments that he didn't intend to hold any referendum in the next term of parliament. He rubbished Dutton's claims, pointing out the opposition leader's shifting positions on referendums on various topics during this term of parliament. 'He said that he'd hold a referendum on Indigenous recognition and then walked away from it. He also said recently he'd have a referendum about citizenship, but it's not clear what his position is on that either, whether he is still pursuing that,' Albanese told journalists in Canberra. 'This is a guy who has committed at various times during this term now, to three separate referendums going forward. So, I intend to not hold a referendum in the next term. I can confirm that.' Dutton claimed Albanese had 'squandered the opportunity' for a referendum on Indigenous recognition. Dutton's decision to oppose the voice, rejecting a former position of support from the Liberal party for the concept and hardening his party against the proposal, has been seen as one of the key moments which saw the voice defeated. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion In the press conference, Dutton did not respond directly when asked how he would gain support from Indigenous Australians for the symbolic recognition plan. Instead, he said the Coalition would focus on 'practical support' for Indigenous Australians, noting concerns around education, safety, health and housing. Dutton had proposed a referendum on symbolic constitutional recognition, such as inserting a mention of Australia's Indigenous history into a preamble of the constitution, as an alternative to the voice. Soon after the voice was defeated by a 60-40 vote, Dutton scrapped the idea, saying Australians were 'probably over the referendum process for some time'. But two weeks ago he floated a referendum to allow government ministers to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals convicted of serious crimes. That proposal was supported by many in the Coalition, but raised strong concerns among others, including former Liberal attorney general George Brandis and other legal experts. Dutton on Sunday again said the Coalition would explore legal or legislative options to strip citizenship from criminal dual nationals, but held open the door for a constitutional change if needed, calling that scenario a 'break glass' situation. He didn't comment further on his openness for a referendum on four-year parliamentary terms, but said he had spoken to Albanese about the concept. Again Dutton said he would only move forward with bipartisan support. On Sunday, Albanese said he supported four-year terms, meaning both major party leaders do back the concept, even if neither is prepared to commit to a vote on the issue.
