What is the Makarrata Commission?

The Makarrata Commission was proposed by the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart as the second element of Indigenous constitutional reform after the Voice to Parliament. The Statement called for a Makarrata Commission to oversee 'agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history'. The term Makarrata is a Yolngu Matha word meaning the coming together after a struggle, often used to describe the process of reaching agreement and reconciliation.

The Statement's structure of Voice, Treaty, and Truth was deliberately sequential. The Voice was to be enshrined first as a constitutional body that would give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a say in laws and policies affecting them. The Makarrata Commission would then oversee the second-stage processes of agreement-making (treaty) between Australian governments and First Nations and the third-stage process of truth-telling about Australian history. The Albanese government had committed to implementing the Statement in full when elected in May 2022.

The 14 October 2023 Voice referendum was defeated nationally with 60.1 per cent voting No, and was carried in no state. The defeat removed the constitutional Voice as a first step and produced political complications for the broader Voice, Treaty, and Truth process. The Albanese government's post-referendum response indicated that the Makarrata Commission would not be pursued in the immediate term as a federal initiative, with attention shifting to state-based treaty processes and to the Closing the Gap framework.

Several state-based treaty and truth-telling processes have continued. The Victorian First Peoples' Assembly, established in 2019 as the elected body to represent Aboriginal Victorians in treaty negotiations, has continued its work. The Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria (established 2021 as the country's first formal truth-telling commission) produced major reports from 2023 onwards. The Northern Territory has been progressing treaty discussions. South Australia legislated for a state Voice in 2023 (operating independently of the federal constitutional question). Queensland passed treaty legislation in 2023 but the subsequent change of state government in October 2024 paused the process. The Makarrata concept continues to inform Indigenous-led calls for treaty processes in various forms, although the federal constitutional dimension envisaged by the Uluru Statement is on hold following the 2023 Voice defeat.