Few would claim that the recent federal election campaign was replete with big ideas. Many including this masthead were critical of small-target politics during the campaign, but as the prime minister made clear in the opening remarks of his acceptance speech, Labor did support a big idea about Australia’s First Nations people.

It is now five years since a large and representative body of Indigenous leaders issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart calling for a Voice to parliament entrenched in the Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to oversee treaty-making and truth-telling.