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

The electorate of Boothby, which I am honoured to represent here today, is on Kaurna Yerta, the unceded lands of the Kaurna people. I pay my respects to Kaurna people, on whose lands I live, and also to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri, on whose lands we meet today, and to all First Nations people present.

Later this year, all Australians will be presented with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to move forward reconciliation with our Australian First Nations people. It's an opportunity to recognise First Nations people in the Constitution and to do it in the way that they have asked us to, a way that will enable the Australian government to hear directly from First Nations people when we are making laws that affect them.

First Nations people called for a voice to parliament through the Uluru dialogues, an extensive nationwide consultation process that took place formally over 2015 to 2017 and drew on the voices of First Nations people over decades of activism, and finally the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The referendum will be the opportunity for the Australian people to say: 'Yes, we're hear you. We understand and we back you.'

I've spoken before in this place about my background working in public health. A core principle of public health is that we are all experts in our own lives. Lived experience should be valued, listened to and respected, and this is the fundamental principle behind the Voice—nothing about me without me. The Voice will enable, in a permanent way, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide input into how taxpayer dollars are best utilised to have the outcomes that will make a difference for their communities and their individuals. We know this is necessary because the gap between Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australians in terms of life expectancy, health, educational outcomes, child mortality—so many areas—is not narrowing nearly fast enough.

For decades we have tried and we have failed to reduce the gap in outcomes when it comes to life expectancy, chronic disease, educational attainment, incarceration, and literacy and numeracy, so it is time to try something different. It is time to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to tell parliament and the executive government what it is that they need.

The idea of the Voice to Parliament is being put to the Australian people, and so it is right and appropriate that various and sometimes conflicting arguments are articulated, discussed and debated. However, I'm saddened by some of the misinformation that is being put up as argument by those opposite. I'd like to take some time to address some of the most common critics of arguments against the Voice.

I've heard those opposite claim that they do not support the proposal because they want to see practical change on the ground for First Nations communities, as if it is a binary choice that these two things don't co-exist together or can't co-exist together. I'd point out to those opposite: you had nine years to make a difference, and the Closing the Gap targets would say you did not achieve that. Only four targets are on track and some targets are going backwards. That's a lot of effort, a lot of time and a lot of taxpayer money that was put towards some very valid goals, but it was done without input from First Nations communities and from First Nations individuals about what they wanted and about what would work with them. Of course it didn't work. Perhaps if you'd first consulted with First Nations people as to what actions should have been taken you would not have waited so much time and taxpayer money on efforts that didn't help and on efforts that in some instances made things significantly worse.

We are all in favour of practical and urgent action on the ground, but we are in favour of ensuring that these practical actions work and that they're done in partnership with First Nations people and with their inputs into decision-making. When I talk to my community in Boothby about what this means, the sorts of things that I hear back from them are the terrible things that have been done in our name that have cost taxpayer money but, more importantly, have cost Aboriginal lives, opportunities and communities. I'm thinking about things like the removal of children. In Boothby we have Colebrook Home, which was a place that existed from the 1940s through to the 1980s, where Aboriginal children from across South Australia, including Lowitja O'Donoghue, were taken from their families and communities and brought up in Blackwood. The house is no longer there; now it is Colebrook Blackwood Reconciliation Park, thanks to the efforts of the local Blackwood Reconciliation Group, who recognised the damage that was done on this site and the pain that this particular site has. If you happen to be in Boothby, Deputy Speaker Goodenough, I would love to take you up there to have a look at the statues, the remembrance and the information that is there that talks to the damage that was done to Aboriginal people on that site.

We've heard that this process has been rushed, as if the last referendum committee was the only thing that had been done—and leaving aside, of course, generations and decades of Aboriginal activism asking for their own voice and asking for recognition. Coming back a little more recently: in 2010 the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians was established following bipartisan commitment to recognition in the 2007 election. The expert panel reported back in 2012. In 2015 the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, about steps towards a successful referendum on Indigenous constitutional recognition, was set up.

The Uluru statement itself emerged from a series of regional dialogues held across Australia. It began when the government established the Referendum Council to oversee a First Nations-led deliberative process. Through late 2016 and the first half of 2017, more than 1,200 Indigenous leaders across Australia took part in 13 First Nations regional dialogues. This process culminated in the First Nations National Constitutional Convention held at Uluru in May 2017. It is from this process that the Uluru Statement from the Heart came to be. This was then examined by committees under the previous government. In 2018 the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition handed down its final report and recommended a co-design process to develop models and options for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. That co-design process started in 2019, and the report was released in 2021. The outcome of these committees recommended that a voice enshrined in the Constitution is the only way forward. A 270-page document detailed what a model might look like.

For those opposite to throw out all of this hard work done by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders across so much time and to say: 'You have to start again. Not good enough. Thanks for all your work. We're going to ignore it,' is unbelievably insulting. An enormous amount of time, work, goodwill and consideration has gone into this proposal, and to call it rushed is a nonsense. Those opposite also claim that there is an unacceptable legal risk in making this proposed change to the Constitution. Bret Walker SC, who appears in the High Court more than pretty much any other barrister in Australia, disagrees. He said that the idea that the voice would be:

… somehow jamming the courts from here to kingdom come as a result of this enactment, is really too silly for words.

The Voice is very clearly an advisory body. It would provide the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into decision-making for government, so that we, the government, when we're making laws and policies that affect the lives and communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, can make informed decisions. Surely more information is a good thing. There is nothing in the wording that requires that the advice be sought, nor that it be followed or adhered to. Hence, it would be difficult to make an argument in court that these things should have or had to have happened. The Solicitor-General's advice makes clear that the Voice as proposed here is not merely compatible with Australia's existing system of representative and responsible government but an enhancement of that system.

Further, I have heard those opposite say that this would be divisive—that we would be introducing race into the Constitution. As if it isn't already there! Section 25 of the Constitution already allows for states to disenfranchise races. Section 51 of the Constitution, the part that was amended in the 1967 referendum, allows the federal government to make laws based on race. The only laws that we make based on race are those that are specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and for that reason it seems entirely appropriate that they have the opportunity to provide us with information so that we can make appropriate decisions. That is what the Voice is about.

The Joint Select Committee on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum completed its inquiry on 12 May 2023. It made a single recommendation: that this bill be passed without amendment. That is exactly what this parliament should do. It's time. It's past time.

Once this bill is passed, Australians will be asked a simple question. They will be asked to approve an amendment to the Constitution with the following words:

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?

I encourage all Australians to find out the information that they need. A leaflet will come out that will give them the information for both the 'yes' vote and the 'no' vote. That is where you need to read your information. Please do not follow the misinformation and the scare tactics that we have seen. I have to say, if the 'no' vote is so strong, I wonder why they have to resort to scare tactics.

I encourage all Australians to vote yes. You have nothing to lose. We have everything to gain. More importantly, our First Nations communities, our First Nations individuals, have absolutely everything to gain, because it is beyond time that we address the issues that affect them, issues in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, childhood education, employment, housing, health—all of the things that we as Australians hold dear to our hearts as part of our quality of life. We need those things to also be here for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and individuals so we can walk together on the road to building a better future for us all.

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