Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin, I thank the member for Menzies for his kind words just a little bit earlier. Debate is high at the moment. It is high throughout the community. It's definitely high in this chamber, and we must remain respectful, but we must remain informed when we have that debate. The issue of competence was brought up. It was brought up by the member for Menzies and a few others just prior. Competence is about delivering and about doing what you say you will do. On election night, the now Prime Minister, Prime Minister Albanese, said that we would implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart and progress a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country's Constitution through a voice, and that is what we are doing. We are putting a referendum to the Australian people on 14 October.

What I would encourage people to do—in my home electorate of Robertson, throughout the country and, in particular, in this chamber—is to make sure that they are informed and that they are educating themselves about what this referendum means and what this referendum is asking. That is, and I say it again, to constitutionally recognise our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters right across this country through the establishment of a voice, an independent advisory body that will be able to make representations to government and executive government about the issues that affect us—a seat at the table.

As has been said many times, as an Aboriginal adult male you are more likely to go to jail than you are to go to university. Your grandson or your granddaughter is more likely to be caused harm or to die during birth, and your daughter is more likely to die during childbirth. We see rampant rates of cardiovascular disease—like rheumatic heart disease, affecting the valves of the heart—affecting our Indigenous youth, our First Nations youth. One day, they are there, living their lives; the next, it is silence. So we need to really, really understand what this is asking.

Some of the comments today from the opposition—some of the comments—have been not just disappointing but quite myopic. There have been short-sighted. All the questions that have been asked and all the comments that have been made in this chamber have really firmed up my position that, first, the opposition have not read the Uluru Statement from the Heart—that one-page document, that gracious offering that has been extended to all Australians and will be extended to all Australians on 14 October. Second, I don't believe the opposition understand the difference between constitutional change and legislative change, which leads me to my third point, which is that they haven't read the new chapter that would be inserted into the Constitution and, to be specific, the third part of that chapter. It says:

the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to … to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including—

and this is the important part—

its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

The primacy of the parliament is preserved. The Constitution is there to guide legislation, as it always has been, and the parliament then forms the legislation. To talk very briefly on the power of listening—and I've said this before and as the health minister has said during question time—listening to our patients and listening to people is so powerful because not only can it reduce harm but it also can save a life. That's the power of listening to one person at one moment. Imagine what we can do if we listen to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters on 14 October.

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