Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I begin by recognising country of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people. Each year we see many anniversaries—for example, the 100-year anniversary of World War I and, of course, in 2015, the 100-year anniversary of Gallipoli. But this year, 2017, for me is the most important, with the marking of 50 years since the 1967 referendum and 25 years since the High Court decision in Mabo that established native title and did away with the legal doctrine of terra nullius in this country. I had the great honour just a few weeks ago of attending the Mabo dinner in Townsville as the special guest of the Mabo family, along with Cathy O'Toole.

Aboriginal people of course are tied to country, just as it is tied to us. Not so long ago we had two distinct historical narratives: a white one and a black one. White Australia, as it was then, had no interest in Indigenous history and black Australia had no stake in engaging with the white future. Now this map is better known. Thanks in part to the High Court finding, more young Australians than ever before know the truth. Eddie Koiki Mabo knew that. His community knew that. But the broader Australian community did not; they denied it.

On 3 June 1991 the painful truth was exposed for this nation, but it was one we sorely needed to be told. So determined was this great man that he and the other litigants overturned more than a century of legal orthodoxy and tore apart the fiction of terra nullius, 'nobody's land'. Of all the cruelties inflicted on an Indigenous people after the arrival, none was more insulting than the presumption that this place did not belong to anybody. That denial was not only a cruelty in denying us ownership but a cruelty in denying the very existence of our ancestors and our history. The High Court finding in Mabo was a victory for First Australians, a victory for the Meriam people and a victory for the broader Australian community. We all remember the day after the Mabo finding and the fight over native title. The scare campaigns and divisions that followed certainly were our poorest national moment.

The truth is that while Eddie Mabo won a substantial battle the broader fight for justice continues today. On 27 May this year was the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, which afforded us the right to be counted in the census and afforded us some equality in the law. These things exist not as a single victory but as events in—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:05 to 11:25

Before the division I was recounting the importance of the High Court decision, which this year we celebrate 25 years of in Australia. I was also speaking about the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum which, as I said, afforded us the right as Aboriginal people to be counted in the census and afforded us some equality in the law.

I have said to this House before that it is interesting that this is not ancient history—in fact, I was 10 years old when the 1967 referendum took place. These things exist not as a single victory, but as events in a long journey towards social justice and reconciliation. I think it is very important that we see these two events in the context of the whole story of Australia and in the history of social justice and reconciliation. We have to take heart from these victories, but we must also take the lessons that they give us. In particular, the 1967 referendum was not a referendum that just came overnight; it took 10 years, three prime ministers and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people of goodwill working together, without the resources or the infrastructure that we have today, to bring about a yes vote in the 1967 referendum.

That yes vote was the most successful referendum this country has ever seen, and the genius of that campaign is that, whilst the questions that were put into the referendum did not, in many ways, seem groundbreaking, the campaigners were able to turn it into a decision for the Australian people about rights for first peoples and the unacceptable position that first peoples were in. That was the genius of the 1967 referendum. I am glad the member for Herbert has just joined us, as I have recounted that we attended the Mabo dinner up in Townsville. The 1967 referendum involved people like Jessie Street, Faith Bandler and many, many others who campaigned over the 10 years and three prime ministers. Holt was Prime Minister when the referendum actually took place. These people knew that they were playing the long game and knew that the only way this referendum would be successful was if it captured the imagination and the decency of the Australian people.

We need to remember just how difficult it is to pass referendums in this country. We are very bound up by the Constitution, but the referendum in 1967 was, as I said, the most successful. When you have a look at the outcomes of that referendum, you can see it is just extraordinary; absolutely extraordinary. In New South Wales 91.46 per cent of people voted yes; in Victoria it was 94.68; in Queensland it was 89; in South Australia it was 86; in Western Australia it was 80; in Tasmania it was 90; and of the total Australian population, 90.77 per cent of people voted yes, which had never happened in a referendum prior to that. Of course, the questions asked of the people in that referendum related to sections 51 and 127 which, essentially, went to the issues of Aboriginal people being able to be included in the census and the Commonwealth government being given the responsibility and the power to make laws on behalf of Aboriginal people. A lot of people say that the referendum gave Aboriginal people citizenship and the right to vote, but that is not actually correct; it is something that has emerged. In fact, it is not out of the realm of reason to hold that belief because, in many ways, it felt like citizenship. If you were denied the right to be counted in the census, then it felt like you did not really count anyhow, and that is very much the way in which it was seen.

The other thing to say, of course, with these anniversaries that we have paid homage to in this parliament and across this country is that we are on the eve of—and the discussions are taking place about—a proposed referendum to recognise Aboriginal people in the Australian Constitution, hopefully some time next year. Of course, that is going to be a very interesting debate for Australians and we, as members of parliament, have to be very clear about our determination there. It is, in the end, up to this parliament to make the decision about what the question will be and the time frame for this referendum. There are three or four pieces of work that we will be required to look at. We will be required, of course, to take heed of the outcomes of the Uluru gathering and the Uluru Statement. There will also be the expert panel's work, led by Patrick Dodson, in that time. There is also the work of the parliamentary committee that went around this country and talked to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. There is also a fourth piece of work, which I am sure my colleague the member for Lingiari will speak about. Those are the things that will need to inform us in our very important deliberations and discussions over the next few months in this parliament, where we will be making monumental decisions on the continuation of the nation building of Eddie Mabo and, of course, of the '67 campaigners. It is a great honour to speak in this debate; it is historic. It is very important that we remind ourselves of our great responsibility.

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