Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It went on to say:

… it seeks to rectify a distortion in the existing system … in my opinion proposed s 129 is not just compatible with the system of representative and responsible government prescribed by the Constitution, but an enhancement of that system.

It went on to say it:

would not alter the existing distribution of Commonwealth governmental power … instead operating only as an advisory body to those two branches of government. The Voice clearly has no power of veto.

It went on to say:

… if proposed s 129 is introduced into the Constitution, representative government will be unaffected.

That, of course, is consistent with what people such as Justice French and Justice Hayne have said.

Today, the four land councils of the Northern Territory came to present to me the Barunga Statement, calling for a vote for yes in the referendum. In the history of our federation we've had 122 years of decisions being made about Aboriginal people, without Aboriginal people. With the best of intentions, we have presided over an expensive, well-intentioned failure. It's been 122 years of doing things for Indigenous Australians; this is our chance to do things with Indigenous Australians.

With respect to the Leader of the Opposition: when he appointed Julian Leeser as the shadow Attorney-General and the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs, I said to colleagues, and I thought, that someone who had been a part of this process for far longer than myself—going back to at least 2012—and who had supported a voice so strongly was able as a legal practitioner to give advice as well to the now opposition, making it very clear that this scare campaign is completely unworthy. This morning the Leader of the Opposition was on Ray Hadley's show, speaking about the Voice dealing with where defence bases would be. I mean, seriously! Indigenous people have an eight-year gap in life expectancy, a suicide rate twice as high, and rates of disease and infant mortality and family violence so much worse than in the general community. Young men are more likely to go to jail than to go to university. They have among the worst incarceration rates in the world. Only four out of the 19 Closing the Gap targets are on track. Something is broken, and fixing it should be above politics. The idea of recognition through a voice did not come from here in Canberra; it came from Indigenous Australians themselves, from the ground up, from the people who know the difference that change can make.

Aunty Pat Anderson said this on Monday:

It is a universal truism when you involve people you make decisions for, you make better decisions …

That is what this is about—listening to people, working with people, getting better at decisions.

All we need to do is listen. That is the opportunity this referendum represents for all of us—not as members of a political party, or, indeed, as members of parliament, but as Australians. We can answer the gracious, generous, optimistic request from Uluru:

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.

It went on to say:

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard.

That's what Australians are being asked to vote for—to say yes to recognition and yes to listening.

I go to all the scare campaigns we've heard before. The Leader of the Opposition, in 2008, said:

I think the Australian people deserve to know the full details of the implications of this policy including the financial ones.

It would beggar belief that they would be contemplating an apology that could open the government up to serious damages claims without knowing what those claims would be.

At a time when there are stresses on the economy we need to know fully the impact of all government decisions.

He predicted $10 billion in compensation claims if the apology occurred—nonsense then, nonsense now. The Leader of the Opposition didn't just sit there and tell Brendan Nelson he was opposed to it; he actually stood up and walked out. That's the Peter Dutton that I know. That's the Peter Dutton that Australians know. And we're seeing it played out again.

I finish where this historic opportunity began—with the final words of the Uluru Statement from the Heart:

We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

Churches, sporting organisations, civil society, business and Indigenous people themselves are out there saying yes. And I am optimistic that Australians will also say yes. (Time expired)

See this speech in context