Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'm proud to represent the people of the Tharawal and the Wodi Wodi country in this parliament. I'm proud to rise this evening to support the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 and I'm proud to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

Our Constitution is and must be a living, evolving document which reflects the Australia we actually live in, not the Australia of another time. We've understood this from the beginning. The Constitution was only five years old when the first attempt was made to change it, and by the end of the first decade of federation three referenda had been held and two had passed. Our Constitution was written at the end of the 19th century, and it was grounded in a view of Australian history that began in 1770. It was grounded in a belief that Captain Cook had discovered Australia, an untouched land that was not inhabited by anyone who counted. To put it bluntly, it was grounded in a fiction.

We cannot hold to the view that our Constitution is a perfect document with no need for improvement, updating or adjustment. The running of this country involves dozens of aberrations, workarounds and fix-ups, on a daily basis. All of them are designed to correct, diminish or get around the effect of the Constitution's many imperfections, which the Australian people rightly expect us as a national government to do. There are things that we can't work around, for which we can't put in place a fix-up and which must be changed. Our founding and our foremost document must embrace and protect all of us. The original Constitution did not. In 1901 the First Peoples of Australia were not only ignored; they were expressly and deliberately excluded from Australian life. And for the first 66 years of the Commonwealth, our Constitution gave the government the power to make laws for absolutely everybody except for the First Nations people. It expressly stated that they did not and could not count as Australians.

Fifty-six years ago this Saturday, Australia ended that exclusion, overwhelmingly and comprehensively. In Mabo, the High Court overturned the historical fiction that had given comfort to generations of European settlers—terra nullius, the myth that this land was empty before we arrived. The High Court rejected this as nonsense, and in doing so ensured that the common law of this country would recognise 65,000 years of culture and of belonging to country in the form of native title. The High Court has rectified the common law of Australia. It's up to this parliament and the Australian people to rectify the constitutional law of Australia. Without an acknowledgement of the First Peoples in our Constitution and without giving them a designated place to speak, that original fiction that enabled their exclusion and silenced their voices lingers on.

It's dazzling to contemplate the true history of this continent. It is our great fortune to live in a place where human beings have walked for 65,000 years, to breathe the air that they breathed and to live amongst their descendants. It is indeed an honour. We have among our numbers the oldest continuous cultures in human history. You cannot break a 65,000-year connection to country that is inspired by spirit, story and song. To stand anywhere in this country is to be a part of this great history, the longest continuous thread. Our Constitution can never be whole until that thread has been weaved into it, nor can the story of our country, nor can the sense of ourselves. The Uluru statement is a gift to this country. It's a majestic document grounded in generosity, honesty and hope—hope for a better future.

For over 200 years, our First People have been hurt. They've been ignored and disappointed. Great travesties have been visited upon them. The Uluru statement might have been full of recriminations for the things that have been done, for the indignities, the injustices, the murders, the misappropriations. There might've been demands for the things which must be done, but instead there's a generous offer: the offer to walk together and to pursue a fuller expression of Australia's nationhood. That's what the Voice is going to give us. It will not make right every wrong. It will not prevent every wrong in the future. It does not aspire to do any of those things. But, by opening up a clear and direct line between our First Peoples and our parliament, it will make a real difference in the Australia that we want to live in and it will give us a clear path to the Australia that we want to live in, where there is justice for the First Peoples, who live amongst us. How can this be done other than by listening?

Sadly, the Leader of the Opposition and his supporters—some of them—do not believe in this thing, and that's why they cavil with it. They tangle themselves in legal and technical arguments and they howl about a lack of detail. They contrive hypotheticals. But strip all of that back and there's one basic truth: they don't believe in this thing and they don't believe in what it means. It's true the Leader of the Opposition boycotted this parliament's apology to the First Australians. He made that active decision to turn his back on that event and eschew all that it meant. He's apologised for that and he was right to do so. It may even be that his views have come some way since that date. But they have not come far enough to be generous. They have not come far enough to believe in this and all that it means, all that it aspires to. We have to lift ourselves beyond the manufacture of fear masquerading as caution and wilfully, knowingly ignorant statements about our Constitution and our history.

To be frank, if you don't feel comfortable acknowledging the whole truth of colonial history and would rather huddle in the shadow of terra nullius, just say so. Just say so. If you don't think First Nations people deserve a constitutionally recognised place in our government, just say so. Just say so. If you don't think First Nations people have anything relevant to say about the social and economic disadvantage that ravages their communities then just say so. Enough of the distractions. Forsake the hypotheticals and the legal tangles and just tell us what really bothers you. The Australian people of today and the future will judge you on those objections.

No referendum in Australian history and probably no public idea since Federation itself has had more eyes and hands on it than the Voice. No referendum since Federation has had more details known about it than the design principles. We know what the Voice is. We know what it's about. We have a proposed question. We have a draft amendment. We have design principles. We know what it will and won't be able to do. It will advise the parliament, but it will not be able to dictate to it. It will guide the parliament, but it will not be able to steer it. It might disagree with the parliament, but it will not be able to veto its work. We know that it is that simple. The proposed amendment is drafted with exactly the same simplicity as the rest of the document it would join. It outlines what it is and what power it has and where those powers end. We know what the Voice is. It has been constructed carefully. It has been constructed thoughtfully by and for the First Nations people of Australia. Rather than talking and telling, it is a product of asking and listening. All it asks us to do is the same.

We regularly attend civic ceremonies and citizenship ceremonies. Towards the end of those ceremonies, everyone stands and we sing the national anthem. There is always that line in the second verse of the national anthem that makes us pause:

For those who've come across the seas

We've boundless plains to share.

We know those boundless plains weren't empty when the Europeans arrived. They were occupied by the oldest continuous culture anywhere on earth. It's time for Australia to step out from the shadows of terra nullius and into the light of a country made whole. Let's get this done.

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