Sometimes in politics – like when you realise your opponent will always punch harder – you should exit the ring and try another approach.
A blistering Productivity Commission review says governments have not delivered on their landmark 2020 agreement to transform the way public servants and politicians work with Indigenous Australians.
Nearly three months after Australians overwhelmingly voted No to the Voice,Labor has said little about its agenda to improve living standards among First Australians.
Just a third of Australians support treaty and truth-telling processes between the federal government and Indigenous Australians following the Voice referendum.
Progress on a $316 million centre the Morrison government announced last year appears to have stalled in the office of Linda Burney.
The prime minister argued Opposition Leader Peter Dutton risked making himself irrelevant if he opposed the Voice. It was a fatal misjudgment.
No campaigners including Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine emerged as persuasive public figures.
The PM called for a “new national purpose” to tackle Indigenous disadvantage after 59 per cent of voters rejected the Voice.
Australia is the loser from a bruising debate that gave voters an “all or nothing” choice and squandered the chance for a unifying resolution on Indigenous recognition.
The prime minister urged voters to be on the “right side of history”,as leading Indigenous Voice advocates delivered a grim message that reconciliation was on the line.
Controversial No campaigner Gary Johns plans to reinvent his anti-Voice outfit Recognise a Better Way as a charity called Close the Gap Research after the referendum.