Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that November 2022 marks 15 years since the Government of Prime Minister Rudd made the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, a moment that forever changed this nation's relationship with our First Nations people;

(2) notes that since this time there has been an increased focus, including through the annual Closing the Gap report, on the need for governments to deliver real, better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians;

(3) commends the work of the Coalition of Peaks and other First Nations organisations to progress efforts to Close the Gap;

(4) recognises that the Government's commitment to hold a referendum to establish a Voice to Parliament represents a once in a generation opportunity to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in our Constitution, and ensures that they will always be included in the policy-making process on matters affecting them; and

(5) calls on members of Parliament, and people right across Australia to campaign in support of the referendum.

The year 2023 will be a big year for our country. It will be the first time in 24 years that we will hold a referendum, and I'm confident that it will be the first time in 46 years that we have a successful referendum in this country, because what we have before us is an opportunity: an opportunity for our country to move forward, to take the history that we have with us and to turn the page on a brighter future.

Constitutional recognition through a Voice to Parliament is about improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It is a simple proposition. It is about giving people a say in the matters that affect them. And it is an opportunity for our community, for our country, to be part of an important change that will make this country stronger together. It will make this a country that fully embraces our past and can move forward together for a brighter future. It is time to do things differently.

In this country, there is a decade life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We know that years and years of government policy has not worked as it should. In many cases, that has been well-intentioned government policy, but it has failed to get the outcomes that it should have. Often it has failed because people and communities have not been listened to; their voices have not been heard. We do need people in communities to be listened to on the policies that affect them. It is quite a simple proposition. What we get from that is better outcomes, and the Voice is part of the efforts that we will all take to move towards that. At its heart, the Voice is a simple proposition. It will be an advisory body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who represent their communities. They will give advice to government on issues that affect them and their communities. The Voice will not have a veto power; it will be an advisory group. It will deliver practical change on the ground in areas like health, education and housing, allowing government to shape those policies, but it will not be responsible for delivering those sorts of programs. The Voice is the best chance we have had in this country to address the injustices of the past and to create a change that will deliver a better future.

This comes in a context where we know there is a lot of work to be done to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There are areas where we have encouraging progress—areas like babies now being born with a healthier birth weight, and the number of children enrolled in preschool. Those are big achievements, but it's not enough. We have a disappointing lack of progress in other areas, including in out-of-home care and in adults in prison. So it is clear that something needs to change. We can't expect things to change if we just keep doing them the same old way.

We do know that local communities know the solutions to local problems, and that is one of the reasons the Voice to Parliament is so important, and it is one of the reasons why it is important that we hear the voice of local communities in the work that is underway to close the gap. And here I do want to acknowledge the work of Pat Turner AM and the Coalition of Peaks for all that they are already doing to elevate the voices of 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled peak and member organisations across Australia. That is such important input that they are providing to that work.

I also want to acknowledge that this month we mark 15 years since the Rudd government made the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. That was a unifying moment for our country. It was a chance to say sorry, to reflect on the pain and the injustice inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and to resolve that the injustices of the past must never happen again.

We have the opportunity for another unifying moment this year. We have the opportunity to deliver not only a new unifying moment for Australia but a critically important reform that gives Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians a say in the matters affecting them, a voice that will help to ensure that better policies are made in this place. I want to thank all those people in my community who have asked me about the Voice, who have told me they are supportive of the Voice, who have told me they want to help work to achieve a voice in this country. It is really heartening to be able to have those conversations in the community, and I know there are many more of them to come, and I know there are many people who want to work with us to make sure that this year we have a successful referendum and we establish a voice to parliament.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Jagajaga for the opportunity to record today, as the member for Indi, my support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a chance for a unifying moment in our history. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a generous invitation by the First Peoples of Australia. It calls for constitutional recognition of the First Peoples of Australia through the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to government and to parliament. By amending our Constitution in this way, we no longer leave it to chance but ensure that First Nations Australians can give recommendations on policies and laws that impact them. It's an invitation I accept. I commit to walk with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to encourage people all over our nation to vote yes at the forthcoming referendum.

When I speak to people in my electorate about this, they're often surprised by how modest the request for a voice is. It is a simple but meaningful and, make no mistake, substantial change that will enshrine a way forward on the structural barriers that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders face every day—barriers in the most fundamental areas of housing, education, employment, justice and health. A voice to parliament is a crucial step towards addressing these challenges, led by the people who know best how to do so—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

They are Aboriginal women like Judy Ahmet from my community of Indi who has supported me, taught me and led me since I put up my hand to run for Indi in 2019. Judy speaks about the national apology, a day I remember so well as I stopped a class I was teaching to listen to Prime Minister Rudd on a day that really was a turning point for non-Indigenous people across this nation, and this one is another turning point for us. A voice to parliament enshrined in the constitution is backed by cultural authority. Politicians didn't come up with a voice. Over 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives issued the Statement from the Heart, calling for a voice to parliament. Years of work and consultation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people led to the Uluru statement, and continued consultation has followed from it. The Voice is the next step on our road to reconciliation. The Uluru statement calls too for treaty as a process of agreement-making and truth-telling—and I support that too—and a voice will enable that process to follow.

I commend the Victorian government for their leadership on treaty. I've met with our Victorian treaty commissioners who have helped me in understanding that process too. I've been speaking to First Nations leaders across Indi and will continue to seek their views on the upcoming referendum. Importantly, in my conversations I hear support for the Voice. I also hear, though, that it's not up to First Nations Australians to secure a yes vote; it's up to us. It's up to non-Indigenous Australians to listen—to listen carefully—and to bring this to life. Ben, from TVN On-Country, a construction company in Wodonga, told me this, and he is right. This is not a question for politicians; it's a question for the people. It's up to our communities to get behind this, and that's exactly what's happening.

Last week 30 community members from many walks of life joined me in my office to share ideas about how they can host respectful, fact based, kitchen table conversations to bring forward a strong yes vote. On Saturday, by the banks of the Seven Creeks in Euroa, on Taungurung country, a yes picnic was held. I was proud to stand by Aunty Jill Gallagher AO and the Hon. Dr Barry Jones AC to address the 200-strong crowd who came to listen and came to learn. The people of neighbouring little Violet Town know that the ask is a crucial but simple one. They're not complicating it. They've set up a humble card table and a couple of chairs in the main street with a simple message: 'Let's talk about the Voice'. They know that this is an historic event, a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and they want to be part of it.

I call on all Australians to think deeply about what we're being asked to consider. When it comes to our moment at the ballot box later this year, a moment when we're alone with our conscience, with our head and with our heart, remember: you have the chance to be part of history. I am confident—I am very confident—that, come the referendum, we will think about the question with our heart and our head and we will proudly vote yes.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Jagajaga for bringing forward this vitally important motion that I'm proud to second. I begin by again paying my respects to the traditional custodians of the land on which our parliament meets, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We open this parliament each day by acknowledging their traditional ownership of these lands. I acknowledge that this land was never ceded and I pay my respects to their elders past and present and those yet to come.

Fifteen years ago Prime Minister Rudd, as one of his first acts in government, stood in the Parliament of Australia and apologised for the wrongs committed against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Prime Minister Rudd apologised for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on our fellow Australians. At that time the Rudd government also took concrete steps to ensure that those injustices didn't happen again and pledged that we all, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, would work to close the gap—the gap of life expectancy, of educational achievement and of economic opportunity—that stubbornly exists between us. Closing the gap is a core focus of our government. We want every Australian to have the same opportunities in life. While we have seen promising progress in areas such as babies born with a healthy birth weight, children enrolled in preschool and other areas, we have not seen progress in other areas. We need to do better on out-of-home care, rates of imprisonment and the life expectancy gap of almost a decade between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. To say 'we need to do better' is a gross understatement. It is not enough, and clearly we need a change of approach.

We know that better policies are made when the people who are affected by them have their voices heard, and that's why the referendum this year is so important. When Australians go to the polls this year, it will be a unique experience for many. For anyone born after 1981 it will be the first time they've ever voted in a referendum. When Australians go to the polls they will be asked to change the Constitution, to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. The Voice is about two things: recognition and consultation. Recognition of Australia's First Peoples in the nation's birth certificate, our Constitution—something promised by successive governments over decades; and consultation, giving First Nations Australians a say in the policies that impact them. These are simple things but they're a huge step for our nation, and one that we really have such a great opportunity to take together this year at this referendum.

If this referendum is successful it will improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. It will deliver practical change on the ground in areas like health, housing and education. It will be an important step on the journey of reconciliation because the Voice referendum could be a unifying moment for Australia. It's about taking this country forward for everyone.

I've heard from a number of my constituents who are already worried by the tone of this debate, and I urge everyone to conduct this debate respectfully, maturely and truthfully. This should be an issue above the daily political point scoring, and I remind all members of this House where the idea of the Voice comes from. This isn't Labor's plan or any politician's plan. It is the request of First Nations Australians themselves. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was a generous invitation from First Nations Australians, formed after a long, involved and deliberative process of consultation. It calls for three things: voice, treaty and truth. This Labor government is committed to all three of these elements, and I call on all members of this House, and all Australians, to join together on this path of reconciliation.

I encourage all of you, in the coming months, to talk to your friends, family and colleagues about how the Voice will help us of recognise Australia's First Peoples and make a practical difference to the lives and communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. A Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is an opportunity to address the injustices of the past and create change that will deliver a better future. Australians can answer this generous invitation by voting yes for the Voice. I look forward, as the representative of the Canberra electorate, to facilitating opportunities for that discussion in my electorate.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion and, in doing so, would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging.

Next Monday, 13 February, marks the 15th anniversary of the national apology. This was a sombre, moving and historic day for our country. It acknowledged the profound grief, suffering and loss that the laws and policies of successive Australian parliaments and governments had inflicted on their fellow Australians, particularly the removal of First Nations children from their families.

The apology was perhaps the starkest of reminders that for many years laws have been made that affect Indigenous Australians, but which were not in their best interests and would not have had their support. The simple truth is that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's voices have been ignored too long. If they had been listened to we would not have denied them the vote for so long, we would not have excluded them from the census and we would not have had the stolen generations.

This year we have a historic opportunity to change things by enshrining the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. And the case for the Voice is strong. It was put forward by Indigenous Australians after a process of regional dialogues held across the country, which led to the Uluru national dialogue in 2017. It has the overwhelming support of Indigenous Australians, and there is no doubt in my mind that the laws and policies will be improved by listening to a representative body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, because you need to listen first if you're going to make effective policy. People in community know what will make a real difference. At the same time, it is an opportunity to recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the first custodians of the land of Australia, and that is equally important to me.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is one of the most beautiful pieces of Australian language. I'd like to read a statement from it—the last paragraph, which says:

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

I commit to walk with them for a better future of this country.

In seizing this opportunity, we must make sure that our national conversation is positive and respectful, because this is a hopeful opportunity. This is a path of the future of Australia. It should be about informing and empowering Australian citizens. It should be about understanding how the Voice will improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which is so important to people, and it should be about bringing people together, not shaming them. In this conversation, we must appreciate that people will have legitimate questions. These questions need to be listened to, and, to the greatest possible extent, they need to be addressed. But, again, we've got to come back to the fact that this is a hopeful opportunity for this country and one that I'm so excited about. It is not about political point scoring, and, frankly, it's not about politicians at all. The push for a voice did not come from politicians. It came from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the people who will decide on the fate of this referendum are the people of Australia. So that is the most important thing—working with community.

I'm super excited, to be honest, on that part, because already I know the Wentworth community is so excited about supporting the Voice to Parliament. A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of chairing the first meeting of Wentworth for the Voice, a volunteer effort that will work with our community, councils, businesses and other stakeholder groups to make the positive case for a 'yes' vote in my electorate and at the same time make sure that the electorate is really informed about legitimate questions on a referendum. We've met with local members of our First Nations community, as well as those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working nationally on the Voice, and our project management team is up and running. We're already planning a wide range of community events. Wentworth for the Voice will aim to speak with every one of our people in our community to engage them and inform them about the Voice to Parliament and this enormous historic opportunity for this country.

I want to pay tribute to Wentworth for the Voice's project management team—Margot, Rod, Sigrid, Desiree, Miranda and Kath—for their efforts so far. Thank you, as well, to other volunteers who are already getting involved, particularly Gene, who was the first member of our project team from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background—but not the last at all—as well as Ian, Margot, Martin, Susie, Mehera, Helita, Margie, Nicole, Michele, Sally, Jane, Amy, Jack, Neroli, Annette and Ruby, and I'm sure I have left somebody off. This list will grow over time, and I can't wait to get started.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Words are important. We know that science has confirmed that the words that we use can shape us, shape our communities and shape our world. That's why it was so powerful when the Rudd Labor government had the courage to say sorry. This month marks 15 years since the Rudd government made the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. I am immensely proud to have been part of that government and to have been in the chamber when then Prime Minister Rudd gave that very important and well overdue speech 15 years ago.

It's estimated that one in three Indigenous children were taken from their families between 1910 and the 1970s. Many people affected by the stolen generation are still alive today, and they were present for that apology. Those of us that were here on that day can remember looking up at the gallery and seeing the faces of these people and the emotion on people's faces, in the chamber, in the gallery and all around and surrounding Parliament House, where big screens had been set up. You only have to look at the faces of the people present on that day to understand how powerful a word can be. 'Sorry' may seem like a simple word to say, yet it proved so difficult for many governments that came before. Successive governments refusing to say 'sorry' sent a different message to all Australians. We were able to acknowledge past wrongs and recognise the pain and the injustice inflicted upon our First Nations people. The apology united the country to reflect on our shared history. Did it solve all the problems? Of course it didn't. But it was a starting point to work on solving the problems.

While this government is firmly committed to Closing the Gap and taking practical action, we also acknowledge that we are still falling short in many areas. We've seen progress in areas like the birth weight of babies and the number of children enrolled in preschool, but we've also seen a lack of progress in areas such as out-of-home care and adult imprisonment. This is one of the reasons we need to do better. We need to do more, and this is one of the reasons why we're enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution and why we feel it is so important. We want to empower more First Nations people to be engaged and have a say on the matters that affect them. We know that, when people who are affected are heard, the result is better overall.

This year, Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution. Australians will be asked to choose a word, and that word will determine the country we aspire to be. I will choose to say yes. I'll say yes because I want to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and I'll say yes because I want First Nations people to have a say in the matters that affect them so better policies can be made in this place. I'll say yes because I want Australia's First Peoples recognised in our Constitution.

'Yes' is a powerful word. It says it's time to do things differently. It says we will listen to what the people and the communities have to say about the policies that affect them. Saying yes can provide another powerful unifying moment for Australian history. It is also the best chance we have to address the injustices of the past and create change—change that will deliver a better future. We all stand to benefit by saying yes.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands. They possessed this land under their own laws and customs. Their sovereignty has never been ceded or extinguished, and it co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.

For more than 30 years, all sides of politics in Australia have accepted the need for a credible Indigenous voice to the federal government and for constitutional reforms to empower our Indigenous people to take a rightful place in their own country. In the Uluru Statement from the Heart, our First Nations people asked us to create for them a Voice to this parliament. It is a beautiful document. It is an invitation and a gift to our nation from the Aboriginal people. Most Australians have not yet read it.

The concept of a Voice to Parliament is simple but powerful. It will be a body of Indigenous people with the rights and means to be formally consulted on policy and legislation which affects their communities. Essentially, representative Indigenous Australians who know their communities will be able to speak directly to parliamentarians in Canberra. They will offer us practical and effective solutions to their unique challenges—jobs, health, education and justice. The Voice will be purely advisory in construct and effect. It will not have the power of veto over legislation.

A voice could be established by legislation without a constitutional amendment. We know this because it's been attempted before, numerous times. Previous representative bodies were poorly designed and underfunded and were ultimately abolished. We've learned from those experiences. This constitutional model results from extensive dialogue in Indigenous communities around the country. The existence of a voice, but not its form, will entrenched in our Constitution. The details of the Voice will—they should—be delineated by parliament. The details of the Voice will be mutable. They can change over time as we need them to change. The details do not need to be in the Constitution; they should not be in the Constitution. We need our Voice to be able to change and to mature as we, as a nation, change and mature. We need it to be adaptable and flexible as we, as a nation, are adaptable and flexible.

The need for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been supported by prime ministers of all persuasions since John Howard in 2007. Recognition is a simple statement of fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first people here. A voice to parliament is a simple and practical way to achieve this recognition in the Australian Constitution.

Australians are fair and generous people. I know that my constituents in Kooyong are fair and generous people. In 1897, Mark Twain said that Australian history does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies. It's time for us to tell the truth. It's only fair that our 122-year-old Constitution recognises Indigenous people as the First People of Australia. In 1967, they were counted. In 2017, they sought to be heard—they're still waiting. This is a chance to unite our nation, a healing gesture. It's a chance to right wrongs by writing 'yes'. This is for us, as a nation, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A successful referendum will be a source of pride for the Australian nation and a unifying moment for us all. And so it's time, as the Uluru Statement says, to 'leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country', to walk together with Indigenous Australians, as we walk together with those born from the early settlers and with our recent immigrants. It's time to give our First Australians a voice and for us to listen to that voice.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fifteen years ago this month I sat in this House as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Labor government and of all Australia. It was my first day in parliament, one of the most significant days in the history of this nation, and still my best day in this place. For all those politicians and everyday Australians who, before the apology, opposed it—the sky didn't fall in. In fact, we were a better nation because of it, both domestically and with regard to our international standing. Later this year, Australians will again have an opportunity to be a part of history by supporting a change to this nation's Constitution. The people will decide. The referendum will be an opportunity to vote on the establishment of a First People's voice to parliament, a process then enshrined in our Constitution, a document that is modern Australia's birth certificate and also our driving licence.

Unfortunately, today, there is only one party that unequivocally supports the First People's Voice to Parliament and the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We had the Nationals out of the gate early saying they were supporting a 'no' vote. They did so because they're almost as scared of the future as they are of truth in the past. We have the Greens political party in disarray, with former Greens Senator Thorpe backing the Nationals alongside Senator Price, while, sadly, in Queensland, we hear nothing but crickets from the Greens representatives. Thankfully, Senator Hanson-Young had the courage to support her community and came out in support of a 'yes' vote. The One Nation business model entails being on the wrong side of history always—quite a skill considering they don't study history and refuse to learn from it. And, of course, the Liberals can't make up their minds about what to do. The member for Berowra might inform me after I've finished. They're neither Arthur nor Martha under their current band leader—a little bit of dog whistle here, a little bit of dog trumpet there, while they slowly slip towards supporting the 'no' campaign.

It was great to see every first minister in Australia, including Liberals, sign a commitment to support the First People's Voice to Parliament on Friday. I thank them for their leadership. I also note that Australia's first federal First Nations cabinet minister, Ken Wyatt, is urging his old party, the Liberals, to back a 'yes' vote. Unfortunately, it seems Ken, just like me, can't see this happening. At the very least, the bloke I watched walk out on the apology 15 years ago this month should at least allow his MPs and senators to campaign for the 'yes' campaign, because I know there are people of goodwill in the Liberal Party—present company included.

Another leading First Nations voice, Professor Marcia Langton, wrote a telling piece about the Voice recently in the Saturday Paper. Ms Langton had some great insights into the 'no' campaign:

There's something the 'No' camp doesn't understand—or if they do, they are worse than I think. We will never get this opportunity again. This referendum is a once-in-many-lifetimes event. That is why it is more important than the cynicism and redneck opportunism with which they have tried to frame it.

For them, this isn't about anything but dog whistling and appealing to those who don't care or understand the issues facing First Nations people and their communities. They will try anything to make sure the referendum fails. Professor Langton also pointed to the fact there have been three lengthy reports commissioned on the Voice, including the 272-page Indigenous Voice codesign process, a final report led by her and Professor Tom Calma. Ken Wyatt also said that on two occasions he brought that report to cabinet when he was minister—a cabinet of which the current Nationals leader was a member and a report that Senator Hume said she hadn't even bothered to read. It's a report that has plenty of detail; you just have to read it.

Eminent constitutional lawyer Professor Anne Twomey weighed in on the argument of there not being enough detail. Professor Twomey said all that is important at the referendum is to know 'the scope of the power' being enshrined, thus leaving the function in the hands of the parliament—the democratically elected people—with the oversight of our tried and true democratic process. This is not unprecedented. When it came into effect on 1 January 1901, the Constitution outlined in section 71 the establishment of the High Court of Australia. However, it wasn't until after the passage of the Judiciary Act in 1903 that the final bench could sit.

There are no hurdles here to stop a successful referendum except for those—many of whom were in government for the last decade—bemoaning that it won't help close the gap. We certainly ain't got it right, right now. Many governments haven't. Do you want to know the difference between good intention policies and bad intention policies? There is none. It doesn't matter. There are just bad policies. So I'll go back and quote Professor Langton again:

It is the duty of Australians who want to build a nation that recognises 65,000 years of human history …

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for his comments. He's one of my favourite members on the other side too, although he's wrong on most things.

I want to thank the member for Jagajaga for reminding us about the 15th anniversary of the apology to Australia's Indigenous people, which we commemorate more formally next week. Like the 1967 referendum, delivered successfully by the Holt government, the apology endures as a landmark in our Australian story. Kevin Rudd realised that the apology had to mark the start of a change, rather than to be an end of itself. As he said:

… symbolism is important but, unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong.

From the apology, the Closing the Gap process was born and eventually revamped. It was revamped because of the realisation that progress was not possible until progress was a true partnership with Indigenous Australians. And I pay tribute to the former minister Ken Wyatt and the Coalition of Peaks for this work.

Under the new process delivered by the previous government, it's not only the Commonwealth reporting on progress against our goals. Every state and territory and the Coalition of Peaks are all reporting on their shared goals. Buy-in has grown; responsibility is now shared across the country. More people now feel the weight of that responsibility—a weight of responsibility that must be felt if we're to close the gap.

Symbolic change and practical outcomes go hand in hand. It's a reason why I'm a supporter of the idea of a voice. But from today's poll, we know the debate hangs in the balance. The idea has majority support, but half of that support is considered soft. As a supporter of the idea of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, I'm deeply concerned by where the debate is at. The government is tripping over itself through lack of detail. The government is mucking this up. The lack of detail is actually damaging support for the Voice. Yesterday it was questions about advising both the parliament and the executive; today it was questions about the Voice being a voice to National Cabinet; and who knows what tomorrow's questions will bring.

We're seeing proponents stumbling over how the Voice might or might not work. The lack of detail is actually hurting the Voice. This was predicted years ago. In 2018 Senator Dodson and I co-chaired the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Some prominent Aboriginal leaders and legal experts were quoted in our final report. Mick Gooda said:

… if Australians don't understand what they are voting for in a referendum they will vote no. …

… If we went to a referendum now … without any detail about how it's going to be formed and constructed, it's a guarantee of failure. We're committed to a voice, but we think there's a process we've got to go through.

Professor Tom Calma said:

… nobody knows what the Voice might look like and how it might operate. Once that's determined or recommended, if there's broad support for it, then we should go into another round of campaigns.

Cathryn Eatock, the co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Organisation, told the committee:

We believe that a governance body should be established through legislation before the issues around a constitutional referendum are addressed, and that that also requires a period of bedding down. We've seen fear campaigns before …

She went on to say:

It's actually the government's responsibility to educate the Australian population and … bring them with us so it's a joint journey of healing for the Australian community.

Indeed, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, in arguing for a constitutionally enshrined voice said, 'A Voice to Parliament established through legislation may provide a practical interim first step.' As the report noted:

Mr Mick Gooda, Professor Tom Calma AO and Ms June Oscar AO argued that a constitutional change would only be successful if it was accompanied by clearly articulated legislation, defining and road-testing the implementation of The Voice, after a co-design process.

Professor George Williams also warned us of the necessary preconditions for successful referenda—namely:

There's that word again: 'process'. That is the thing that's lacking now under this government and why this is so important. As Dr Jackie Huggins, the then co-chair of Congress put it in 2018, 'a failed referendum would be another blow to Indigenous Australians.'

A referendum requires a serious act of persuasion. We owe it to the First Nations peoples of this country, and to our shared national story, to give this referendum every chance of success. The government's strategy must be: details first, referendum second. That's how to make the idea of a voice a reality. Detail creates confidence; detail creates the scope for debate. Detail will stop the daily sloppy interviews we're seeing from this government in the debate, from the Prime Minister down. Noel Pearson anticipated this a year ago when he said in an address:

Let us complete the legislative design of the Voice, and produce an exposure draft of the Bill so that all parliamentarians and the members of the Australian public can see exactly what the Voice entails.

I'm drawing the Chamber's attention to these statements because they demonstrate that, when we call for more detail before a referendum, we are not alone. In fact, prominent Indigenous leaders, lawyers and people who are now advising the government have previously made the same argument. So my plea to those opposite is to adjust course. Please, please, please, please adjust course.

Debated adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:32 to 16:00