Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start this MPI by telling a bit about my story. I grew up in a little town called Whitton in the Riverina. I learned to swim in irrigation channels. We shared that water with yabbies and red-bellied black snakes. I was born at a time when a white woman having an Aboriginal baby was shocking, and doubly so if that woman was not married. My Great Aunt Nina and her brother, Billy, raised me. It was not easy for them, but through their love and kindness they keep me the solid start in life and laid the foundations for the life I have today. In 2010 I returned to Whitton. I was a New South Wales cabinet minister at the time, and a man a little older than me said to me, 'You know, Linda, the day you were born was one of the darkest days this town has ever seen.' I was so shocked. That someone with my unlikely story could be a minister, the first Indigenous woman in federal cabinet and the minister for Indigenous Australians is not lost on me. But what matters is what this represents for Australia, how far we've come and how far we still have to go.

I was 10 years old when Australians voted in the '67 referendum. Today I am responsible for another referendum, despite the fact that for the first decade of my life I didn't count. This time it is to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution. This referendum is our chance to do better, to make lasting change that will make a practical difference on the ground in communities. Just last week we saw new data that shows 15 of the 19 targets are not on track. If we needed any more evidence that the same isn't good enough, this is it. We have to do things better, and that's where the Voice to Parliament can help, because the Voice will be the mechanism for government and parliament to listen. It will be a resource of local knowledge and can help to make better policies. But instead of listening to these ambitions, we have spent years and billions of dollars on poor outcomes, and this has happened because there is no structural accountability—no voice. Regardless of your own opinion, we should all be able to agree that we need to do better.

This MPI concerns how this Voice will work, so let's be clear—the Voice will be an independent representative advisory body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It will be chosen by local communities. It will give independent advice. It will allow local voices to be heard. It will be gender balanced and include young people. It will be accountable and transparent. It will cooperate with existing structures. It won't deliver programs. As the Prime Minister has made clear, it won't have a veto. It is forward for everyone.

Friends, how often do we get the chance to put a shoulder against the wheel of history and push? For 65,000 years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been speaking 363 languages but have had no voice. This year, you have the power to do something about it. This whole idea of Constitutional recognition through a Voice began with Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples themselves. History is calling—it's calling on us to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and it's calling on us to vote yes for the Voice.

See this speech in context