Leaders failing to lead

The comments of Senator Barnaby Joyce and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the Uluru statement show a lack of leadership and vision. What divides us is not the amazing courage and leadership emerging from First Nations people from Uluru, but the small-minded views of some such as these. I apologise to the First Nations people, yet again. Until we face and acknowledge our past, our present, and how we treat First Nations people and deny them a voice in how their affairs are run, none of us will have a bright future. As a developed country how can we continue to allow disadvantage and not enable those with lived experience and culture to have a say and a voice? In 2006, I wrote an opinion piece entitled, “Aborigines are still treated with disdain”, based on my firsthand experiences of racial discrimination while journeying as a white person beside Indigenous colleagues. Let’s think about how little we have moved on. Let’s not wait for the politicians and right-wing think tanks to sabotage the debate again. As Lowitja O’Donoghue once told me, “It’s for the people to lead and the leaders will follow.”

– Dr Liz Curran, ANU School of Law