CAM REDDIN, JOURNALIST: First of all Minister, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on the new role as well.
MINISTER MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Thank you. It's lovely to be here.
JOURNALIST: We've heard a lot today about the renewal process from the Voice to parliament referendum. It's one of the themes of the Garma festival this year. How is the healing process going coming up to that first year on from the result?
McCARTHY: This weekend really is about that reset, regrouping, regathering and, you know, rejoicing in one another. We did have over 6 million people who supported us and we need to look at what we can learn from that whole journey and where we go from here. So, I'm quite excited to be here with everyone.
JOURNALIST: You sound very optimistic.
McCARTHY: Always, always optimistic.
JOURNALIST: That's good. How important is that process of festivals like this, of events like this, of coming together, that communal, perhaps grieving, but also looking to okay, how do we now move on from here?
McCARTHY: Well, First Nations people are resilient people. We've had many things happen over many centuries, whether it's policies that have failed us, whether it's been interaction with non-Indigenous Australians or interactions with each other, or fighting for justice in all sorts of quarters and courts across the country. But we just dust ourselves off and get up and keep going. This is our home. We're not going anywhere.
JOURNALIST: We've just had the closing the Gap report released in the last 24 hours or so. So look, there are some good things in there. Progress being made on education, progress being made on health that you've mentioned today as well. Obviously, a lot of work to do on issues of suicide, of incarceration, even levels of discrimination that First Nations people feel on a day to day basis. I think the figure was 60% of people feel they've personally been vilified for their background, for being Indigenous. There's a long way to go, isn't there?
McCARTHY: It's deeply troubling to see the statistics with Closing the Gap in particular on those issues like. And we know the high rates of incarceration. We do have the Coalition of Peaks across the country and First Nations Ministers in each jurisdiction. What I want to see is reaching out across the parliament. We can close the gap on these targets. We're a great country. We're watching the gold medal races around the world in the Olympics. We need to be able to do this, and I think we can. And one of the challenges for me is to call on my opponents. People from all political persuasions to work with me on closing those gaps.
JOURNALIST: You've talked about speaking even with One Nation, with the Greens, with Jacinta Nampijnpa Price, Peter Dutton, right across the divide. You're very determined to get that bipartisanship. I know you're only a week into this new role. Have you received an indication from those parties, from your opposite number, that there's a willingness to engage in a bipartisan way?
McCARTHY: Parliament's in a week's time. I'm clearly going to have those conversations once I get back to parliament and once we all get back to parliament after the five week winter break. What I'm doing is flagging that this is what I hope to achieve with politicians of all persuasions. I've not been in the Minister role before. I've certainly been an Assistant Minister, in health. But now I have the purview of the whole portfolio and I can see that those Closing the Gap targets will be a priority.
JOURNALIST: We've heard today Peter Dutton say under a government he would lead, there'll be no Makarrata, there'll be no truth telling. Will your approach be to try and change his mind, to change the minds of the Opposition, or will you look for other ways to try to close the gaps and meet those targets?
McCARTHY: Closing the Gap has many, many targets and what I want to do is work with the political parties to say, we can do this. We can reduce the high rates of suicide. We must be able to reduce the high rates of incarceration. We've got to be able to get our kids to school. And I would like to think that they are fairly basic human needs that fellow politicians will see we can achieve that. We're obviously going to have a disagreement on other areas, but I would like to think that in Closing the Gap targets, we can work together on that,
JOURNALIST: Broadly speaking. You want that discussion? You want that to be an open conversation, collaborative, putting ideas on the table and coming to solutions, whatever they might be?
McCARTHY: Absolutely. We've seen Indigenous affairs become a political football over many decades and one of the things I'd like to do, certainly with my own personal upbringing as a Yanyuwa Garrwa woman, but also my role in representing the Northern Territory and the over 100 Aboriginal language groups here, I can see that we can find at least common goals somewhere, and the challenge for me will be to find it.
JOURNALIST: Just finally, any words of advice from Linda Burney on the way out as she passed the baton in her words to you, any advice she gave to you in taking the role?
McCARTHY: Look, Linda has just been outstanding in her own leadership, her persistence, her courageousness and certainly her determination to do so many things. I'll continue in the role of many of those things, like the jobs employment area. That's a really strong one for us with the 3000 jobs. And I'm looking forward to being able to continue to work with her because she still will be in the parliament.
JOURALIST: Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, thank you for your time.
McCARTHY: Thank you.