JOHN-PAUL JANKE, HOST: You've been elevated into the cabinet as the new Minister for Indigenous Australians, how are you feeling?
MINISTER MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Oh, deeply proud, JP, deeply proud to be a voice for the people of the Northern Territory at the big table, the cabinet table. Deeply proud to be a voice for my own families, the Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Marra and Gudanji peoples of the Gulf region, and incredibly thankful to have been able to get here.
HOST: You previously have spoken about the need for bipartisanship across the portfolio. How will you actually achieve that?
MINISTER McCARTHY: There's a lot of work ahead, JP, there's no two ways about it. But I'm a firm believer in trying to work with people. I have grown up with that, as a Yolngu woman, in terms of the Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Marra and Gudanji peoples. We have four clans, I have always had to navigate, negotiate between those clan groups, between them, the Jungkayi and the Ngimarringki and always trying to find a common ground between these groups. And I have used that same skill, if you like, in working across the Northern Territory with over a hundred Aboriginal languages, I don't speak those languages so I naturally use interpreters, as you should, you know, to listen, to think, to work a way through, to still find common ground. And even in political life, more so in political life, we need to find the one thing that we do have common ground in, and that's the challenge for me, is to look for that in my opponents, because I do want to see us rise above treating Indigenous affairs as a political football, when there are so many of our people committing suicide, when there are so many of our people incarcerated, and needing the kind of support from their leadership.
HOST: The Garma festival this weekend, Peter Dutton has chosen not to attend. The shadow spokesperson has chosen not to attend. This is a great opportunity to show beyond the referendum result that there is bipartisan support or we're working towards that support. What type of message does that send if the Leader of the Opposition can't even attend an invitation on behalf of the Yothu Yindi Foundation and Traditional Owners to come to this festival?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, clearly they are questions for the Opposition Leader and the Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister. From my perspective, I feel that in the parliamentary realm I need to do as much as I can to reach out, and not just to the Coalition, there's also the Greens, there's also the crossbenchers…
HOST: Do you think though again it's a missed opportunity?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, I clearly understand that the Yolngu are disappointed that the Opposition Leader and the shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister did not take up their invitation. I'm hoping that perhaps there will be ways forward in the future for them to be able to show the respect that no doubt the Yolngu have provided in that invitation. What I'm about, though, JP, is that these issues around closing the gap and these targets, which we are fundamentally finding very difficult to lower, are so important to me, and I will do everything I can to ensure that we can have some kind of bipartisanship.
HOST: What are your key priorities in readdressing those targets, to maybe shift them to somewhere that we actually are meeting those targets?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, I have to have a look at how the Coalition of Peaks is working on this with governments across the country, with our government, federally, speaking with Pat Turner, the Chair of that, I'm looking forward to meeting with her to go through it in more detail. We have to do this together with First Nations organisations. One of the things our government is absolutely committed on is making sure we are walking with First Nations organisations and people in the decision-making process. But somewhere in that decision-making process we still don't seem to be able toll achieve the better outcomes in those targets, and I need to have a good look at that and find out, well, where is the blockage here?
HOST: What do you hope to have achieved in your first 100 days as Minister for Indigenous Australians?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, I certainly hope in the first 100 days that I've been able to reach across the aisles, political aisles, and actually really have serious discussions with my opponents, with the teals, with the crossbenchers, about how it is we can elevate Indigenous affairs above the political football that it's always been.