Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to be able to get up and talk on the inquiry of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as part of one of the big challenges this country faces around the legacy of constitutional recognition and what that means and what policies and proposals are being put forward for consideration by the parliament. I know that this issue has gone through lots of different iterations and that the focus now—I think, rightly—is on the importance of a national voice and a local voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to their communities, those allied communities, to state governments and to the Commonwealth government. I really welcome the shift in focus from the Constitution towards being I think, frankly, much more on outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I want to begin by congratulating all the people who were involved in this discussion. It is one of those issues that I dipped my toe in from time to time in my former capacity as Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, particularly working with my good old friend the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda. That was around the need for some redress, whether it's through the Constitution or law, to give voice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I came to the discussion, actually, with a bit of scepticism as well as a deep-seated sense of optimism—scepticism about the idea that we needed to change the Constitution but optimism because I could see the goodwill of the Australian people. I know the member who spoke previously has reflected that from her own community, but I think it's shared across the whole of this great nation. It's an optimism about the capacity to redress past wrongs and an optimism that we, this generation, can get things right for the future. That's not a naive optimism where we just simply go off and spend money or resources willy-nilly to try to show our compassion or signal our virtue. But, actually, we believe that we're the generation that can fix and settle so many of the debates that have occurred, address those injustices and find a way that we as a nation can go forward together.

And I have optimism from spending time in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, coming—and I'm quite open about this—from the relative naivety of a boy who grew up in the Mornington Peninsula in the great state of Victoria, where there were a very small number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I had a relative absence of understanding of the challenges being faced. To have spent time on the land and in the community helped me to understand the cultural connection, particularly to land, that's the foundation of who Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are.

That that might finally be respected in the way that they have a voice and are represented in our country is so important, because that connection to country is central to identity. It is central to how people see their lives and it's where they build the foundations and building blocks of themselves into their nationhood and, ultimately, into our shared nationhood.

That's why I'm such an optimist, because I think that recognition is coming through in this interim report. What we see are people moving on from the idea that the best way to deal with all problems is through the prism of Canberra. We are shifting the focus into the prism of community. Let's not be under any misunderstanding that when we focus on people's hardship and challenges through community, it's not simply to dismiss the concern and say, 'It's their problem.' It's actually to say the reverse, 'It's their opportunity and empowerment.' Our job is to back them and to build the foundations of a sustainable community; to help people help themselves so they can stand on their own two feet and so they can be in the best position to help others also and to create the opportunities for the next generation.

That's what I see coming out of this interim committee report today: a recognition and understanding of the power of community as the foundation, not just of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's identity, connected directly to country, but the foundations for what is ultimately a national voice. The paper that was written by Warren Mundine under the banner of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy outlined what potential is realised when you move away from focusing on the Constitution and having big national bodies to focusing on the legitimacy that can come from local representative bodies connecting directly with other local representative bodies and local communities. The power is when they organise together and what can happen around their legitimacy to build state based bodies to engage with state governments. Critically, when you have local bodies voicing to and being part of state bodies you can ultimately get national bodies that carry the legitimacy and the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That is so earth-shattering because of its strength and its connection to country that it can move the mountains of legislation in this place to advance the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

That is what I see coming out of this report: a final recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have their say—that after the abolition of ATSIC, they have lost their voice to our country and they have lost their voice of their nationhood. No-one is trying to replicate ATSIC or trying to pretend that there weren't issues. But there is a need to give that voice back and to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be able to have their say on the affairs that affect them. If we're going to go down a model of local community based representation that can build up to Canberra, that voice will only be heard in this place because of its strength and because of the common agreement that will sit behind Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from country to Canberra. That is what is being realised.

I think it is the most exciting proposal that I have seen in this place. I think it is the one in which we, as members of parliament, representing the whole of the country, can have the greatest affinity for. It is one where any voice that speaks to this nation has the weight that we would expect of it to be able to influence the national agenda appropriately and in a way that seeks to unite the nation.

There are lots of different opinions about what the consequences are if we have legal structures or let legal voices into the Constitution. I don't want to indulge in some of those conversations right now, but one of the reasons that I've always been deeply concerned about a constitutional voice is not a reason that other people have come forward with. It is because I think a constitutional voice would falsely draw legitimacy simply from its place in the Constitution, and that wouldn't mean that it didn't have other work to do, whereas the organisation of people from country, through community groups and community representation, through states and nationhood, comes with a legitimacy that, frankly, the Constitution could never give, because it is truly representative and carries the weight and voice and representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This committee's interim report provides an opportunity for a reset and a refresh which is truly empowering for Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is something that is genuinely exciting, and I can only wish the committee all the best in their endeavours to keep up the work. I reiterate the statement of the member for Indi: the hope is that the final report will be a position that's shared by all members, one that can be made unanimously to the parliament, seeks to unite the nation and is part of a pathway to that final point of settlement about so many of the wrongs of the past, a pathway that we can move forward on together.

Debate adjourned.

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