In August, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the Garma Festival and announced the government’s new Indigenous policy direction. This agenda rises from the ashes of the Voice to Parliament referendum, almost a year after it was voted down.
Alongside continuing to address Closing the Gap measures, the new direction emphasises economic empowerment and development. Albanese connected closing the gap with the “new opportunities” arising in the global economy, including in sectors such as defence, security, critical minerals and renewable energy.
At the same time, he seemed to distance himself from establishing a truth-telling commission, or Makarrata, as the government had promised to do. Instead, he spoke about doing things that “make a practical difference”.
