NSW premier Chris Minns has been slammed for forging ahead with plans for a treaty with Indigenous ns despite the defeat of the Voice last year.
Warren Mundine, an Indigenous leader who opposed the referendum, urged Mr Minns to ‘stop wasting money’, saying a treaty would not solve problems within the Aboriginal community.
‘It’s not going to … help anyone, it’s just a total waste of time,’ he said. ‘Stop with these stupid, stupid conversations.’
Mr Mundine, who started out as a Labor political operative before later running for a seat as a Liberal, said NSW should instead ‘start looking at the crime rate’.
‘Let’s start getting education, let’s start getting jobs and dealing with those government issues that need to be done,’ he told Sky News.
On Friday, the state government appointed three commissioners to conduct a one-year ‘listening tour’ across the state.
This tour will look at whether the state’s Indigenous communities want a treaty and how that should work if they did.
But Mr Mundine dismissed the plan as a waste of money and time.
‘If we take their track record so far it shows like in the Voice campaign they went out on a “listening” tour, and they didn’t listen because they got flogged in that vote,’ he said.
‘My advice to Chris (Minns) is, come on mate, stop wasting money. We know what the issues are within Aboriginal communities.
‘We know how to fix things and get things better. Setting out these talkfests (is) just a waste of time, and even if you go ahead with it, it has to be a vote for the people of NSW.’
NSW is following in the footsteps of other states in pursuing a treaty.
Victoria was the first to introduce legal frameworks for an Indigenous treaty in 2018, with Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and Northern Territory also looking at establishing their own treaties.
South legislated for a state-based Voice in March 2023.
But Mr Mundine said state treaties would not help solve the problems experienced by Indigenous communities.
‘None of them (states pursuing treaties) are going to fix anything, I can tell you that now,’ he said.
‘All it is… going to do is fix the hip pocket of the people who are sitting on those communities.’
He pointed out that in ‘s First Nations Voice to Parliament election in South in March, more than 90 per cent of eligible Indigenous voters did not vote.
‘We saw in South only… 10 per cent of Aboriginals actually voted in that election, 90 per cent didn’t. That’s a big… “no we don’t want this,”‘ he said.
In Victoria, the First Peoples’ Assembly held elections in 2019 and 2023.
But the Assembly, which is supposed to negotiate a treaty with the state government, has had very low voter turnouts, with just 7 per cent of eligible voters doing so in 2019 and 10 per cent in 2023.
Mr Mundine told Sky News host Danica di Giorgio that it’s pointless to try to find other ways of getting a treaty after the referendum was so comprehensively defeated, with 60.06 per cent of people voting no.
‘It divides the community. They community has already voted. They voted on the Voice and it was quite clear, treaty was in that Voice,’ he said.
‘They made it quite clear, “No, we want to come together as a nation, we don’t want to be divided.”‘
The three people appointed to work on the NSW treaty process are former senator Aden Ridgeway, academic Dr Todd Fernando and Naomi Moran, editor of the Koori Mail newspaper.
Daily Mail has contacted Chris Minns for comment.