Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of Australia and as the traditional owners of this land for more than 60,000 years. I also acknowledge and pay my respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, on whose ancestral lands we meet. I also acknowledge the palawa pakana of lutruwita.

Although I am standing here today in the privileged position of an elected representative, my goal today, as it has always been when speaking on matters that directly impact my local community, is to endeavour to reflect the views of those I represent. Today I have sought to elevate the voices of First Nations people, including in my home state of Tasmania, in this speech, because, as others have already pointed out today, the Voice is not about me or other politicians in this place; this is about all Australians. As my friend the member for Menzies pointed out, reasonable people can disagree, and the law is, by definition, contested. As elected members, those are considerations we have to weigh up.

In this instance, I return to what our First Nations people have asked us to do as a guiding principle which is reflected in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. As shared in the 2017 statement:

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia's nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

The impact on Indigenous communities from white settlement in Australia continues to this day, and Tasmania is sadly no different. The first documented contact between Indigenous Tasmanians and Europeans occurred in 1772. In 1803, the first permanent European settlement in Tasmania was established at Risdon Cove. In the years that followed, as the British population grew in the state, so the number of first inhabitants began to fall, their destruction hastened by violence, dispossession and disease. By 1818, there are fewer than 2,000 left on our island. Just a few years later, rising tensions gave way to the Black War. I would highly recommend Nicholas Clements's book to anyone wishing to gain a greater understanding of this war and its significance in the history of our country.

A recent trip to Wybalenna on Flinders Island with Minister Linda Burney was an emotional reminder of the cruelty inflicted. This remote location, on a remote island far from their own island home, was used as an Aboriginal settlement for more than 130 Aboriginal people from 1834 to 1847, with just 47 surviving before eventually being transferred to Oyster Cove, south of Hobart. Abductions of women and children were rife from the very beginning, paving the pathway towards forcibly removing children from their own loving homes, perpetrating unspeakable pain that we can't begin to imagine.

Time and time again, we can look to the pages in our history to see how government policies, through deliberate action or inaction, have led to consistently poor outcomes for the world's oldest culture. We know we cannot change the past, but, this year, we have an opportunity to turn the page and to take the first meaningful steps towards true reconciliation in this country.

So what does that mean for our Tasmanian Indigenous community? Alison Overeem from Leprena Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress told me:

The voice is a stepping stone

It's the first in many yes threads of restorative justice that will follow on

It's leaning into the wisdom of

those who gathered around the Uluru statement from the heart

It's not the final YES

It's the thread that will lead to treaty and truth-telling and begin to acknowledge the history that sits on and with the Lands now Called Australia

We must weave and unweave the justice and injustice narrative of a nation with this referendum

This is a first step

This is a step we must take

To allow others to follow

To allow truth and treaty to be appreciated, actioned and upheld.

For Nick Cameron, Chair of the melythina tiakana warrana Aboriginal Corporation and director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service, son of renowned elder Aunty Patsy Cameron, it's a chance to move beyond what has already been done and create a stronger, brighter and more equitable outcome. I would like to read his commentary to me in full, as it bears listening to. He says:

Intergenerational trauma and disadvantage remain high within Tasmania for Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The impacts of invasion, dispossession, genocide, segregation, family separation and institutional and community racism has had and continues to have significant impacts to the health and wellbeing of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The voice will allow Tasmanian Aboriginal people to bring advice to the national government and Parliament on what needs to happen to improve the services and support programs specifically needed for Tasmania. This is critical for improving the lives of Tasmanian Aboriginal people, whilst we share many of the same problems as other jurisdictions many are also unique due to our history and culture. A voice for Tasmania is critical to bring the issues directly impacting on us as Tasmanian Aboriginal people to the national stage.

Incarceration rates especially for our young people remain significantly higher than the general population. Life expectancy, suicide, health in general and mental health are below national levels. Social disadvantage with intergenerational family poverty, financial stress, poor educational outcomes, family violence are all at unacceptable levels without signs of improving. Again, the issues and solutions to these problems are unique to Tasmania and only the Tasmanian Aboriginal communities through our own voice can genuinely improve these systemic problems. Our communities have many of the solutions to our problems, we just need to be provided the opportunity and respect to be heard. The answers to the problems for the Northern Territory or Western Australia may not be the right answers to the problems we face in Tasmania, the voice will provide carriage for our issues and solutions.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Community has its own unique challenges with political and funding imbalance and recognition of identity impacting on the Closing the Gap targets. The voices of Aboriginal communities and individuals is silenced due to the power imbalance and until the voices of the wider community are heard the lives of Tasmanian Aboriginal people will not improve. Funding in who receives it and who it is made available to continues to be a big issue within Tasmania directly impacting on the access to services that are needed to support the wider communities. Funding needs for Tasmania are specific for Tasmania and its regional communities, we need a voice to represent everyone so a level of equality and equity can be assured. This is something TRACA has been calling on for many years without success.

Tasmania has a very high level of lateral violence that prevents communities and individuals from speaking up, we need support to stop this intercommunity abuse, so all people are free to speak without fear of reprisals or social media violence. The Voice will provide opportunities for individuals to stand up and become new leaders within our communities which can only be a good thing.

Government at a State and National level has a responsibility to help communities navigate lateral violence which is a tool to silence and disempower the ones without the capacity to defend themselves.

Tasmania is 6 years behind the other States in a state process for treaty and truth-telling, this is a tragedy and directly impacting on the lives of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. We need the national voice to help the state transition to a treaty and truth-telling process as quickly as possible to prevent the disadvantage of our communities compared to mainland mobs. Land returns and self-determination through treaty is critical for Tasmania to move forward, the voice will be needed at a state and national level to push forward these important agendas. The voice at both levels will be critical to ensure the entire community are empowered to be involved and have a say in this process.

Something needs to change; we cannot continue to do the things we have always done. The communities want more than symbolic recognition, they call for positive solutions that will improve the lives of our people. We are yelling loud and clear it's no longer acceptable for our challenges to be used as a political game for personal self-interest. The Tasmanian Aboriginal community expect and deserve leadership, the voice will give us an enshrined and protected platform through the referendums national mandate to be heard loud and clear and not ignored or further silenced.

There are tangible and intangible nuances within all communities and Tasmania is no different. It is implausible for decisions made by Canberra on policies and support programs to be made without direct advice from the people who live within the communities it is targeted towards and impacts on. This is the core purpose of the voice for Tasmanian Aboriginal people, to give those in power and policy-making positions the critical community-level advice they need for appropriate and considered decision-making, nothing less and nothing more.

For John Clark, Chairperson of the Flinders Island Aboriginal Association, the Voice is an opportunity to be heard and create practical change on the ground in his community. He says:

The hope if successful would give the organisation a vehicle to raise our thoughts and concerns about legislation, policy and how proposed policy on how it would impact the day to day lives of the aboriginal community we deliver services to and advocate on behalf of. It means the decision makers hopefully take into account all the concerns and input from all the communities across Australia, not just peak bodies or others with vested interests. I think it has the potential for decision makers to be more informed in order to make better decisions as most of the time, it is not one size fits all.

I do think it's critical to address some of the concerns about the question in the referendum. No, the Voice will not have veto power nor act as a third chamber. It will simply and reasonably give advice on laws made specifically for and about Indigenous Australia. To claim otherwise is a deliberate and harmful misrepresentation of the facts, and I'm disappointed to have seen this wilfully perpetuated by some.

Nor does the argument that this referendum is dividing the country by race make sense. When the Constitution was drafted in 1901 it specifically excluded Indigenous Australians. While the exclusion was removed at the 1967 referendum, the races power still exists, providing parliament with the power to make laws specifically about any group on the basis of race, and this power has only been used to make laws about our First Nations people. So, if these laws exist, it's reasonable in my mind that Indigenous people have their voices heard over those laws. I'm also certain that the reintroduction of the cashless welfare card is not in keeping with that sentiment.

I've also heard the argument that the Voice is, at best, tokenistic. To me there is nothing more tokenistic than supporting the recognition of our First Nations people and falling short of providing a permanent platform to ensure their voices are heard now and for generations to come. If you support constitutional recognition but you oppose the Voice, what exactly do you hope to achieve? You can't have the symbolic without the practical. They are intrinsically linked.

This referendum provides an incredible chance to begin righting so many wrongs and to bring about tangible differences in quality-of-life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I think that most Australians agree that the status quo isn't acceptable and that as a country we must do better. Here is our chance. This is what First Nations people have asked for.

Let's reflect on just how many referendums have been held over the past 122 years. If this opportunity is lost, how long will it be before the chance comes around again? As one lady from the Flinders Island Indigenous community said to me during my visit to the area with Minister Burney a few months ago, just how long do we have to wait?

The proposed referendum question is:

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?

For our First Nations people, particularly in my home state of Tasmania, who have long been advocating for a better, brighter and more equitable future, my answer is yes.

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