Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

By the time this parliament next sits, Australia will have voted for Constitutional recognition through an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament. It is and it will be a defining moment for this country. The question for the Australian people is quite simple: 122 years since our Constitution was created, are we finally ready to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? Are we ready to begin a process of healing for this country? Are we ready to finally call ourselves the land of a fair go?

I believe we are. I am probably the only politician in this building whose signature is on the Uluru Statement from the Heart. I can tell you, with my hand on my heart, that the process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a powerful one. I sat out bush with communities, in the dirt, and I spoke with hundreds of Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory. We spent countless hours listening and compiling information to take to the Uluru convention. Over 250 delegates were at the convention: leaders who had been nominated by their communities from across the country, people who have done the hard yards on the ground to make a difference.

I can say, because I was there, that this idea came directly from Aboriginal people. It comes from years of hard work to try to find a way to forward. Many people in this place have commented on the process involved in the Uluru statement, and many have sought to undermine the Uluru statement. It is easy to sow doubt, it is easy to divide, it is easy to play a game of fear. What is much harder is to work with Aboriginal people to make systemic change. The Australian people, through their vote in this referendum, have a once-in-a-generation chance to make a change and to reshape how this country treats its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This will make a difference.

The truth of the matter is that things that we are doing now are simply not working. If we are to make substantive change, our people needed to be at the table. When the crime crisis in Alice Springs was raging, I said publicly: Aboriginal leadership and communities need to be at the table. I said this because when that leadership is at the table there is responsibility and an obligation to act and to be part of the solution. When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are involved in decision-making, better decisions for our communities are made, but there is also buy-in from those communities. Things turn out better on the ground. This is not taking away the responsibility of government to do better, but it is saying that when you involve Aboriginal people, when you listen, you make better policy.

When I want people's opinion on small business, I go to small business in my electorate. When I want advice on agricultural policy, I to the farmers, the Cattlemen's Association and their respective bodies. When I want to hear about the impacts of health policy, I speak to the health experts. What the Voice will do is create a formal advisory body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have direct input on policy that affects them. That is all. It is a modest but powerful change.

Making change never comes easy, but at critical moments in history this country has shown that it is a place of fairness and justice. Thirty thousand people around the country are taking to the streets on market stalls, doorknocks, marches and phone banks. This is not a campaign we are running on Sky News; it is one we are running on the ground. We have five weeks, and my call to action is this: on the day after the referendum, we want to know that we gave everything we had to try to make this country a better one. In the face of a fear campaign, we have stood strong and we did what was right. These opportunities do not come often—I can tell you that. So let's not be left wondering what we could have done.

I want to acknowledge and pay tribute to our federal Minister for Indigenous Australians and the courage and conviction she has shown—in the face of the terrible campaigns that are run against her—to stand with the Prime Minister to make a change to make our country a better one. Thank you.

See this speech in context