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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, earlier today you gave a statement—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the Leader of the Opposition will cease their discussion across the chamber. I want to hear the member for Lingiari in silence. I want to be clear with everyone that, when members are asking questions, out of courtesy and respect I want the chamber to listen to the question. Equally so, when the minister approaches the dispatch box they're to be addressed with respect and courtesy as well. I give the call to the member for Lingiari.

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Earlier today you gave a statement on closing the gap. How will a voice to parliament help achieve the objectives of closing the gap? What work has been done on the structure of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?

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

I thank the member for Lingiari for her question. Most importantly, I thank her for her services to remote communities in the Northern Territory in particular while in her current role but also as a former minister in the Northern Territory government. She brings a great deal of experience and honour to this House.

This morning I heard an extraordinary interview by another great Indigenous Australian—one who has been honoured in this House by being the first Indigenous Minister for Indigenous Australians—Ken Wyatt, a former member of this House. In that interview Ken Wyatt addressed very directly the suggestion that somehow there is no detail when it comes to the Voice to the Parliament and the link between a voice to parliament and practical reconciliation in closing the gap—something that Ken Wyatt was very passionate about. In that interview he said a range of things. Mr Wyatt spoke about there being four pages. He said: 'If people read them, they would understand the detail. It's pages 15 to 19 which spell out the principal based approach, the scope, how it does work in practice and what are the steps we need to get there and then the relationship with government, which doesn't impinge on the sovereignty of the Australian parliament.' He was talking about the Indigenous Voice co-design process: final report to the Australian government: July 2021.

He went on to say: 'Now I took this report to cabinet twice—not once, but twice.' In that interview he referred to the pages that outline the principles based framework for a local and regional voice, how this works in practice, the national voice overview, the structures and principles which are there between pages 15 and 19. I table those pages of the government report that was developed of course by Tom Calma and Marcia Langton. They were of course commissioned by the former government and reported to the former government. There are 280 pages of detail about how the Voice will operate.

What's more, it arose from the 2015 final report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. There were clear recommendations in that report. It was a bipartisan report. We have had this process for a long period of time. It's time we advance this— (Time expired)