Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lingiari for her question and her immense support through what has been a remarkable process. The Constitution is the founding legal document of our nation. For 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been speaking more than 300 languages. But, under our Constitution, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have had no voice, no say in the matters that affected our communities. For far too long governments have made decisions for Indigenous Australians and not with Indigenous Australians. As Nathan Appo said today: 'Our people are living in poverty. They need a voice. We need recognition. We need a voice to the parliament. We've seen over years and years of changing government how we've had to travel down and fight just to exist—for our people, for our elders.'

Today my friend the Attorney-General introduced the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) Bill 2023 into the parliament. It sets out the question and constitutional amendment that will be put to the Australian people at a referendum later this year. It's a simple question:

A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Do you approve this proposed alteration?

It's a simple question, a matter from the heart. It's the culmination of so much consultation and hard work. I want to thank members of the referendum working group, the referendum engagement group—some of whom have joined us here today—and the legal expert group, for their wisdom and their dedication. I want to finish with this quote from Noel Pearson, and I ask everyone to listen to this:

Now is the time for us to act as Australians. Not as Labor people, not as Greens, not as Liberal or National party people … not as indigenous and non-Indigenous people, but as Australians. Because what we are trying to achieve here is unity. We want inclusion. This will do it.

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