Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands. They possessed this land under their own laws and customs. Their sovereignty has never been ceded or extinguished, and it co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

For more than 30 years, all sides of politics in Australia have accepted the need for a credible Indigenous voice to the federal government and for constitutional reforms to empower our Indigenous people to take a rightful place in their own country. In the Uluru Statement from the Heart, our First Nations people asked us to create for them a Voice to this parliament. It is a beautiful document. It is an invitation and a gift to our nation from the Aboriginal people. Most Australians have not yet read it.

The concept of a Voice to Parliament is simple but powerful. It will be a body of Indigenous people with the rights and means to be formally consulted on policy and legislation which affects their communities. Essentially, representative Indigenous Australians who know their communities will be able to speak directly to parliamentarians in Canberra. They will offer us practical and effective solutions to their unique challenges—jobs, health, education and justice. The Voice will be purely advisory in construct and effect. It will not have the power of veto over legislation.

A voice could be established by legislation without a constitutional amendment. We know this because it's been attempted before, numerous times. Previous representative bodies were poorly designed and underfunded and were ultimately abolished. We've learned from those experiences. This constitutional model results from extensive dialogue in Indigenous communities around the country. The existence of a voice, but not its form, will entrenched in our Constitution. The details of the Voice will—they should—be delineated by parliament. The details of the Voice will be mutable. They can change over time as we need them to change. The details do not need to be in the Constitution; they should not be in the Constitution. We need our Voice to be able to change and to mature as we, as a nation, change and mature. We need it to be adaptable and flexible as we, as a nation, are adaptable and flexible.

The need for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been supported by prime ministers of all persuasions since John Howard in 2007. Recognition is a simple statement of fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first people here. A voice to parliament is a simple and practical way to achieve this recognition in the Australian Constitution.

Australians are fair and generous people. I know that my constituents in Kooyong are fair and generous people. In 1897, Mark Twain said that Australian history does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies. It's time for us to tell the truth. It's only fair that our 122-year-old Constitution recognises Indigenous people as the First People of Australia. In 1967, they were counted. In 2017, they sought to be heard—they're still waiting. This is a chance to unite our nation, a healing gesture. It's a chance to right wrongs by writing 'yes'. This is for us, as a nation, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A successful referendum will be a source of pride for the Australian nation and a unifying moment for us all. And so it's time, as the Uluru Statement says, to 'leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country', to walk together with Indigenous Australians, as we walk together with those born from the early settlers and with our recent immigrants. It's time to give our First Australians a voice and for us to listen to that voice.

See this speech in context