Tony Abbott’s hand-picked advisory group on Indigenous affairs has a chance to bring in more community voices and be more forthright in its advice, after it won a reprieve from the new prime minister, the deputy chair of the council, Ngiare Brown, has said.
The fate of the prime minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council had been unclear until Tuesday night, when newly appointed Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, rang its chairman, Warren Mundine, to say the group would stay on under his prime ministership.
Council members were chosen by Abbott, and had been criticised for not being representative of the wider Indigenous community.
Turnbull paid tribute to his predecessor, who had labelled himself “the prime minister for Indigenous affairs”.
“I’m the prime minister for all Australians, and that of course includes first Australians. I want first Australians to have the same opportunities as everyone else,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday night. “So yes, I do see myself as the prime minister for Indigenous affairs.”
“It would be hard to match to Tony’s engagement with Indigenous communities, living and working in these communities a week a year,” he continued.
But when asked if he would follow suit on the week a year promise made by Abbott, Turnbull would only say that he was considering it.
“I am talking to Nigel Scullion about that,” he said.
Mundine told Guardian Australia that he was “very happy” that the council would get an opportunity to continue its work.
He admitted that there was a “difference in personalities” between Turnbull and Abbott, but said that the new prime minister is just as committed to Indigenous affairs as his predecessor was.
“There’s no doubting his record,” he said.
Brown told Guardian Australia that Turnbull’s decision to keep the group going represented an opportunity to get back to “core business” by providing the prime minister with “substantive advice” on Indigenous affairs.
“I need to be optimistic,” she said. “I’m interested in knowing what the new prime minister wants to do in the Indigenous affairs portfolio.”
“Council needs to do things a bit differently and be a bit more forthright in its advice [to the prime minister],” Brown said.
Mundine said the council has been successful in pushing its point on matters in the past, including being vocally opposed to the closure of remote Indigenous communities.
“I made it quite clear where the council stood on issues,” Mundine said. “I don’t think any chair of any committee was as scathing of the prime minister as I was about the closures.”
Mundine and Brown will have a phone meeting on Friday with representatives from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which has housed the Indigenous affairs portfolio since just after the 2013 election.
Progress on the 2017 referendum to change the constitution in order to recognise Australia’s first peoples will be high on the agenda.
The first Indigenous-specific constitutional convention was supposed to be rolled out in September, but has been pushed out to later in the year.
Abbott had arranged to meet with all the members of the Indigenous Advisory Council in October. The timing of that meeting is also unclear.
Despite the council’s remit being “pre-determined” by Abbott to focus on education, employment, constitutional recognition and community safety, Brown thinks that the council now has an opportunity to listen to “grassroots” voices.
“We’ll be pushing to be more engaged with communities,” she said.
Labor has vowed to scrap the council if it wins office at the next election.
The shadow Indigenous affairs minister, Shayne Neumann, has criticised the council for being “well-meaning” but ultimately “paternalistic”.
Neumann told Guardian Australia that Turnbull is giving the public “the silent treatment” on Indigenous affairs, and that there will be no change in direction under the new prime minister’s leadership.
“It’s more of the same,” he said. “There’s nothing to indicate that Malcolm Turnbull will change policy from Tony Abbott.”
“There’ll be more paternalistic policies towards Indigenous Australians under this new prime minister,” Neumann said.
Turnbull has promised to meet with representatives from Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander groups, including members of the national congress of Australia’s first peoples, “as soon as possible”.
