Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and those opposite, at that point, were working towards the implementation of that. The current Leader of the Opposition appointed Mr Leeser as his first spokesman for this issue. He was an architect of what ended up being placed to the Australian people in the referendum last weekend. Our government and the Labor Party, along with the Liberal Party, stood by that process and the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

In light of what occurred over the course of the weekend we have made clear that we hear the voice of the Australian people and that the pursuit of reconciliation and the pursuit of Closing the Gap are no longer going to be achieved through constitutional reform. But we are completely committed to a process of reconciliation, and we are completely committed to a process of Closing the Gap. We are going to take what Indigenous Australians have said in the aftermath of last weekend, and that is, 'Allow time for the dust to settle.' We will work with them about how we can best, as a nation, achieve the object of Closing the Gap and pursue reconciliation in this nation.

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