Noel Pearson and former prime minister Paul Keating have declared successive governments from both sides of politics have failed First Nations people, as they reflected on decades of inaction on key Indigenous issues.
In a wide-ranging discussion, the two luminaries ruminated on the state of Australian politics, nationhood and family as Pearson launches his new book 'Mission: Essays, Speeches and Ideas'.
Mr Pearson nominated Indigenous constitutional recognition, treaties, and an enshrined voice to Parliament as some of the most drawn-out issues in the nation's history, saying progress towards all of them had stalled.
"It's been 15 years since the commitment to recognition was made in the 2007 election," said Mr Pearson.
"Four parliamentary processes three public inquiries; there has not been a public policy issue as protracted and as involved as that to do with constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians."
Noel Pearson & Paul Keating in Conversation at the Judith Neilson Institute on Wednesday. Source: Katje Ford
'We have not succeeded'
Mr Keating said the country was 'living a lie', having failed to reconcile itself and its history with First Nations peoples.
"We have not succeeded in reconciliation. We don't have a treaty. We don't have a voice," he said.
Mr Keating said a treaty could become a founding document for the country's perception of itself and its past, castigating his own side for not pushing the issue.
"200 odd years later, we [can] come to an agreement about how we see each other's interests and how we conduct ourselves in the future.
"... a Labor Party should be on the front foot with treaty."
Mr Keating also referred to his landmark 1992 Redfern speech, which acknowledged the toll of colonisation.
Former prime minister Paul Keating said the country is 'living a lie' with unfinished business on treaty, voice to parliament and constitutional recognition. Source: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
"I tried to get the Redfern speech to articulate the lie. We shouldn't be living the lie and we are still living the lie."
The comments come as shadow minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney told Newscorp she could not guarantee a vote on enshrining an Indigenous voice to Parliament in Labor's first term, should they be elected.
"The logic has always been in the first term of a Labor government, but you don’t have a referendum if you don’t think you are going to win it,” Ms Burney said.
"If a referendum is lost then the momentum would be very difficult to sustain."
In a recent interview with NITV News, the minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said Tom Calma and Marcia Langton, co-chairs on the Voice advisory committee, were continuing their work despite the imminent federal election.
Mr Wyatt said the local and regional bodies proposed in their final report are key to elevating the concerns of First Nations people living in remote and rural areas.
