Speaking at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice on Friday, Professor Marcia Langton painted a grim picture of the relationship between governments and Indigenous people.
Langton witnessed the issues first hand when she was consulting around the country on the Indigenous Voice Co-Design report.
"Nobody in government speaks to them," she told the committee.
"They fly in ... and government bureaucrats say something to them or politicians say something to them and then they fly out and they never hear anything from them again.
"I overwhelmingly got the impression that all governments of Australia need to rebuild their trust with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," Langton said.
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Dutton and Govt trade barbs over Alice Springs crime rate
It's a tall order, especially when we consistently see real issues in our communities being politicised on the national stage.
Once again, Aboriginal communities are in the spotlight this week, lobbed as a political football in between sitting weeks by the Opposition leader.
You'd be forgiven for thinking this feels like deja vu, after Peter Dutton served this argument up during the post-Christmas January break.
This time, the quiet post-Easter week presented an opportunity for the Opposition leader to again turn his focus to Indigenous people in Alice Springs.
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Northern Territory Minister Kate Worden has responded to a string of claims from opposition leader Peter Dutton.
Dutton's trip to Alice
Next to Celtic-Warlpiri senator Jacinta Nampinjimpa Price in Alice Springs, Dutton declared once again that sexual abuse of Indigenous children in the region is rampant, making shocking claims that children are being returned to their abusers.
When asked to produce evidence backing his claims, he either wouldn't or couldn't.
When asked if he had spoken to Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, he said instead that he had spoken with businesses and shoppers in shopping centres.
His claims were immediately rebutted and called into question by the federal government, the NT government, and the peak body for Aboriginal and Islander Children, the Secretariat of Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC).
SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle is an Arrente woman who has lived most of her life in Alice Springs.
She says she is "beyond frustrated" with the way Peter Dutton is inserting himself into a complex issue.
"Sexual abuse is a really serious crime which has a devastating impact on children and families and communities.
"This is not a political football. It should not be politicised like this for point scoring.
"What we definitively have not seen in the evidence and the data is an increase in child abuse or, in particular, in child sexual abuse. It is not reflected in any of the data sets," Liddle said.
Time and again, politicians across the spectrum prove they cannot speak accurately on behalf of Indigenous communities.
Whether a Voice to Parliament could rebuild that trust is yet to be seen, but if the model put forward by Professors Marcia Langton and Tom Calma is taken up at least communities would be about to also speak for themselves rather than relying on politicians.
Jacinta Price and Peter Dutton at a press conference in Alice Springs this week.(
ABC News: Chris Fitzpatrick)
Campaigning or concern
Dutton has shown there is often a degree of opportunism when he chooses to dip into Indigenous affairs.
His party room decision last week to take a hard "no" position on the Voice came just days after a drubbing in the Aston by-election, which quickly deflected attention from the Liberals' electoral problems.
Conservatives and moderates all agree Dutton isn't out of step with the members of his party room. All acknowledge an "overwhelming majority" wanted a no vote, despite Julian Leeser's resignation from the front bench.
While most of his focus this week was on years-long, entrenched issues in Alice Springs, Dutton also took a swipe at the Voice proposal while he was in town.
"I don't believe that a 'Canberra Voice' of 24 people who predominantly come from capital cities is going to be the solution to the problems here on the ground. If I did, I'd embrace it straightaway," he said.
"We will be consulting with people about the Voice but the urgency of what's happening here now needs to be understood," he said on Wednesday.
Dutton's new nickname for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice proposal is an attempt to diminish the work of the Indigenous leaders who have put together the proposal on behalf of communities across the country and conveniently ignores that his job is to speak to the seat of power — Canberra — on behalf of his electorate.
He has also been accused of takingconversations with First Nations communities about the Voice out of context, presenting their questions about how the model would work as outright opposition to the proposal
Missed opportunity to listen
Dutton's repeated forays into Indigenous Affairs highlight why a higher level of accountability is needed when it comes to policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Constitutionally, even Indigenous parliamentarians can't represent their mob before their electorate.
Too often, communities are forgotten, until it's politically convenient.
The disappointment from Aboriginal leaders in Alice Springs is palpable after Dutton's visit.
Despite being chief executive of the Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Native Title holders in Alice Springs, Graeme Smith couldn't get Peter Dutton to sit down with him during his trip.
He believes the visit has less to do with Alice Springs and is more about Dutton's campaign against the Voice.
"What we don't want, and what we do not believe in anymore, is politicians representing us in Canberra," Smith said.
"That's why we want the Voice. We want our own voice."
