McCarthy likely to remain as Indigenous Affairs Minister

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy is on track to retain her portfolio as Minister for Indigenous Australians after Labor’s federal election win.

“Tonight the people of the Northern Territory have joined with all Australians to say we love our country, we do not want to see division in this country especially with our First Nations people,” she said in Darwin on the weekend.

“And we have been given a mandate tonight to find and persevere through a better way for all Australians especially the First Nations people of Australia.”

Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told the ABC she was angered by the “mudslinging of Labor.”

“Because the media can go through your personal Facebook photos and find a picture that was taken in jest at Christmas time and then smear you with it, that is the problem, that is the issue,” she said.

“Here in Lingiari Aboriginal people are going to continue to be marginalised, the gap is going to get wider, because we take an ideological approach to all these issues and Labor will continue to do that.”

Senator Price did concede the Coalition should have released its policies earlier in the campaign.

“We could have provided our policies sooner to the Australians people to have a better understanding of what we wanted to do to support Australians better,” she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has yet to confirm whether the Labor Government has taken Truth and Treaty off the table after the defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum.

“I’m very committed to practical reconciliation moving forward,” Mr Albanese told the ABC.

For most First Nations voters, there was little to attract their attention, with a lack of policies on Indigenous issues throughout the campaign.