Indigenous Voice referendum architect Noel Pearson has called for the abolition of Aboriginal affairs departments in Australian states and territories, arguing the current system is fragmented and ineffective. Speaking at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, Pearson advocated for responsibility for Indigenous affairs in remote Australia to be transferred entirely to the federal government.
Pearson stated that while the Commonwealth provides significant funding for Indigenous programs, state and territory governments control many of the systems through which this money is spent, including education, child protection, and justice. "What can you do if your state chooses to spend it on detention over education?" he questioned, highlighting the disconnect. He believes that dismantling state-based Indigenous affairs bureaucracies would reduce duplication and allow funding to flow more directly to Indigenous organizations.
This was Pearson's first major public address since the 2023 referendum on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians, which he described as a disappointment for remote Indigenous communities that had overwhelmingly supported the Voice. "The discrete Indigenous communities of Australia overwhelmingly wanted the Voice. The rest of the country did not," he remarked.
Pearson defended the aims of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, referring to it as "our prayer to the Australian people" and "the most beautiful unrequited letter of love in Australian political history." He expressed a continued responsibility to the Indigenous people in remote areas, whom he termed "blue-dot communities," for having placed their faith in the reform.
He emphasized that the fundamental problems facing remote Indigenous Australia remain unaddressed. "The blue-dot communities of our homelands stand in grave need of healing," Pearson said, asserting that guaranteed work is the most effective solution for healing individuals, families, and communities. He also stressed the importance of educational guarantees for children in these areas as a critical economic development strategy.
Pearson criticized both major political parties, accusing Labor governments of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" and Coalition governments of an over-reliance on law-and-order responses. He warned that the continued inability of governments to deliver necessary reforms constitutes not only a moral failure but a "civilisational one," with the potential "destruction of the blue-dot communities of remote Australia at stake."
Despite the referendum's outcome, Pearson insisted that the pursuit of structural reform must continue. "After the rejection of the Voice, the conversation about structural reform of the federal arrangements governing Indigenous affairs must resume," he stated, posing the question, "If not a Voice, then where do we go from here?"
The Garma Festival was attended by senior government ministers, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong, though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had previously committed to attending annually, was absent.