Speaking to NITV’s The Point as part of its election special, Mr Wyatt argued there was a clear government endorsement for the plan.

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap was signed in 2020, with the federal government finalising its implementation plan in 2021.

“It’s like the stolen wages, it’s like the Stolen Generations, and many other programs for which governments have been sued.”

Legal expert weighs in

“Class actions are big cases, they’re hundreds of millions of dollars, and sooner or later I think governments will have to acknowledge and accept they’ll have to work differently.”

“A lot of those are about discrimination and the delivery of services, and the negative impact that has in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”

Funding dysfunction

He said requests for funding from First Nations communities would often be diverted to his Indigenous affairs budget, regardless of whether other portfolios should bear responsibility.

“When I asked for infrastructure funding, I never received it because I was told to take it out of the Aboriginal affairs budget. That’s the subtle focus on Indigenous people – use indigenous money, as opposed to ‘yes this is a need in my portfolio, we should be addressing it’.

See more on The Point tonight at 7.30 on NITV, or SBS On Demand.