One of the fears after the Voice referendum was that Indigenous people and organisations would find it even harder to work with government to address issues impacting their community – given that story there and what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been saying since the referendum campaign, their fears were well founded (and of course they were).

One of the things Indigenous leaders have made clear, at least to me, is that since the Voice referendum, there has been a real ‘hands off’ approach from the Labor government, which has made their job harder.

The Closing the Gap targets that are seeing improvement are areas where there is a lot of Indigenous leadership, working with community, instead of imposing on top of it. That is what the Voice was meant to do on a much more national scale – give First Nations people input on the legislation and programs which impact their community. Just input and advice.

The loss of the referendum didn’t just create a status quo situation. It’s made it even harder for Indigenous leaders and groups to be heard.