Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Reconciliation Park in Eden Hills in Boothby is the site of the former Colebrook children's home. From 1944 to 1972, Aboriginal children from across South Australia were sent to Colebrook house to be raised by the United Aboriginal Mission after being removed from their families and communities. The house itself is now long gone, and, thanks to the work of Colebrook Tjitji Tjuta, Blackwood Reconciliation Group and the Aboriginal Lands Trust, this park is now a site of reconciliation and healing, with a series of very moving statues reflecting on the experiences of the children who were sent there, their mothers, their families and their communities.

My background is in public health, and one of the really important principles of public health is, 'Nothing about me without me.' This principle has been used across health programs that aim to address unequal health and social outcomes for women, men, older people and those of specific cultural backgrounds. Ultimately, while as a non-clinical public health practitioner I can design a program along best-practice, evidence based health principles, unless it actually works for the people it's designed for, it fails. At its worst, it may do real harm, as we now understand the child removals did to both those removed and those left behind.

For me, this is the basic principle behind the concept of the First Nations Voice to Parliament, which will be proposed in a referendum expected later this year. In 1967, the Australian people voted to give the Commonwealth government the ability to make laws impacting Indigenous Australians. Now, over 50 years later, the Voice is designed to give those First Nations Australians the opportunity to have input into the laws and programs as they affect them. By establishing a voice in the Constitution, it will ensure that this principle is not subject to the whim of current or future governments.

The recent Closing the Gap report, which reports on a number of health and social outcomes where First Nations people have significantly poorer outcomes than the general Australian community, continues to have very mixed results despite years of funding and best intentions. After 15 years of Closing the Gap initiatives, life expectancy for First Nations people is close to a decade less than the rest of the community.

We're all experts in our own lives and experiences, and the Voice will provide input into how taxpayer dollars are best utilised to have the outcomes that will make the difference for the communities that will be impacted. The Voice will not be a decision-making body. It will not have the power to veto anything or to enforce anything. It won't be delivering programs. It will, however, ensure that, when making decisions that impact First Nations Australians, current and future governments will have the best possible opportunity to receive the advice and the input they need from those who will be directly impacted. Nothing about me, without me.

We're holding a Voice event in Boothby at the beautiful Belair National Park on Gums Oval No. 1, from 11.00 am till 1.00 pm on Sunday 26 February. RSVPs are on my website. South Australian Attorney-General and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Kyam Maher, and the member for Waite, Catherine Hutchesson, will be there. I invite all of my Boothby residents to come along. Please let us know if you're coming, and let's have the conversation.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:27

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