Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

In the lead-up to the introduction of this bill, the government established the Referendum Engagement Group, the Referendum Working Group and the Constitutional Expert Group to provide advice on the draft constitutional provision. The Constitutional Expert Group examined in detail the proposal put forward by the Prime Minister at the Garma Festival last year and found it to be a solid basis for the constitutional alteration. As a result of this process, the government refined and improved upon that proposal to clarify and broaden the scope of the parliament's power and to ensure that the provision fits seamlessly within the Constitution.

The bill has also been the subject of rigorous and robust public debate and scrutiny, including through the joint select committee's enquiry. The overwhelming majority of legal experts have concluded that it is constitutionally sound. The committee recommended, after reviewing significant evidence through hearing and submissions, that the bill be passed unamended. The government thanks all those who contributed to the committee enquiry by making a submission or giving evidence and thanks the members of the committee for their thorough and thoughtful consideration of the issues.

It has been just over six years since more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates gathered at Uluru from all points of the southern sky to make this modest request for voice, treaty and truth. We in the parliament have spent many hours discussing how to fulfil the first part of that request, a request built on more than a decade of work. But it will soon be up to all Australians to make a choice. It will be up to the Australian people to take the opportunity offered by the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017, an opportunity for our nation to do better, to come together and to walk towards a better future.

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