Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by thanking the Attorney-General for his diligent work on this legislation. It is a brilliant piece of reform that will bring our referendum machinery into the modern era. The last time the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act was updated was in 1984. In 1984, Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister, Western Australia abolished capital punishment, the first untethered spacewalk occurred and 'Original Sin', by INXS, was the No. 1 Australian single.

The world was a very different place 39 years ago. Social media didn't exist, computers could barely fit on a desk and modern forms of communication were but a dream. The notion that we run a 21st-century referendum based on archaic laws is absurd, and so I rise today to speak strongly support of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Bill 2022. Whether or not you support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, this legislation is crucial. At the end of the day, the job the Australian people send us here to do is to make laws. If you're a Labor government, you make good laws. And so this is exactly what we're doing. Elections, referenda and the machinery that governs them are the beating heart of our democracy. A referendum is the voice of the Australian people, speaking and directing their government down a path. Whether an election runs well is a difference between legitimacy and illegitimacy. We have seen the division a contested election can cause in communities in the United States. Australia must never head down that path, which is why the machinery that governs our upcoming referendum is so vital.

Labor has a proud history of electoral reform. It was Hawke who introduced disclosure thresholds for political donations. Our Special Minister of State has also flagged truth in political advertising is a particular area focus. One of the key measures of this bill is an education campaign for all Australians. Any Australian under the age of 40 will never have voted in a referendum campaign before. Now must be the moment in which we educate people on the importance of our Constitution. We must also educate people on what it means to amend our Constitution. If we want people to make an informed decision on what it is they're voting on, we must invest in their knowledge and their capability to do so. This is a monumental moment for our country, a chance to reshape our interactions with First Nations people. Yet, if we do not also grasp the opportunity to inform the Australian public on what it means to recognise our First Nations people in the Constitution, we will have missed a great opportunity.

The previous government, through their advertising efforts in their COVID-19 messaging, undertook an ambitious public education campaign. To do this, the government used mechanisms that people regularly use and can easily understand—TV, social media, radio and the internet. This is not a foreign concept or one without precedent. I sincerely hope that the opposition agrees with us here. We know that the way people interact with information is different in the modern era. Most people get their news and information online or on their devices. We all know that here we spend half of our lives staring at our phones. It is critical that we meet people where they are and that, as a government, we modernise the way we interact with people. That is at the heart of this legislation.

What is also essential in this legislation is how it aims to bring referenda voting closer to resembling a federal election. This means including provisions for postal voting, something we know is really important for people who may not be able to attend in person, for people with mobility issues and for the elderly. Our federal elections run well. We definitely have issues in my electorate of Lingiari around the vast logistical challenges of remote polling. In Lingiari, as you can imagine, there are about 195 remote polling booths in that electorate alone, which is something the AEC will need to be conscious of for this referendum.

All in all, our elections run to a high standard. Why should we not aim to emulate this in the upcoming referendum? This is particularly important for postal and prepoll voting, which we all know enhances participation in our democracy. Nowhere is this more important than in Lingiari, with a vast electorate, complex logistical efforts for remote polling and a deeply invested community. This referendum needs to run well. For regional Australia and, indeed, all of Australia, this legislation is vital.

I've made no secret that I am a major supporter of the Voice. If you look at the Uluru Statement from the Heart, you will see my signature. For 65,000 years our people have occupied this land. Surely it is time. We deserve a voice to this parliament; surely we deserve recognition in our country's Constitution. How else can this country move forward? Until we look back on our history, how can we ever look with hope to our future?

I was there when the largest gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership was at Uluru. Now some people seek to undermine that meeting. I think that is cheap and disrespectful. This parliament consists of around 227 members. There were 250 First Nations leaders present at Uluru. Does that not validate the importance of that meeting? This parliament speaks with the authority of the Australian people, and at Uluru the leaders of our First Nations communities also spoke with authority. The Voice may be a new term for many people out bush and, certainly, a lot of people across the bush electorates that I have consulted. I'll be making sure that we work hard to ensure that people in remote communities, particularly in Lingiari, understand what we are embarking on. But what is well understood is that Aboriginal people need to have input into policies that affect them. If you ask people, like I have, from Warlpiri to Tiwi to Anmatjere to Yolngu, 'Should your communities be consulted on policies that affect you?' The answer I am hearing overwhelmingly is yes. Our people want better outcomes on health, on education, on housing—right across the board. How are we to get these outcomes if our mob are not included or keep being excluded in the discussion?

As it stands, our Constitution, our nation's founding document, is incomplete. It does not tell the story of our First Peoples. And, indeed, for a long time, it actively discriminated against them. We need to correct this. Australians are known as the people of a fair go. Australians believe in justice. We know what is right and we stand up for people around us. It is time for Australia to extend this to our First Nations people and to join them on a journey forward, an exciting journey and one that seeks to bring our country closer together. But more than that, if we are ever to make significant inroads between our First Nations people and others in this nation we need these practical reforms, reforms that put the views, interest and voice of our First Peoples at the heart of government decision-making. As the Minister for Indigenous Australians said, 'In 1967 we sought to be counted. In 2017 we seek to be heard.' It is the unfinished business of this country. First Nations people seek to be heard.

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