Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians. How is the Albanese Labor government advancing its commitment to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full?

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I thank the member for Chisholm for her question and her enthusiasm in relation to this issue. Today, the House of Representatives passed the constitutional alteration bill without amendment. Today, we are one step closer to a referendum. Today, we are one step closer to recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution.

Six years ago, 250 First Nations leaders gathered at Uluru. They called for a voice and for Makarrata to oversee a process of truth telling and agreement making, expressed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to Mutitjulu, to meet with leaders and with the local community. Uluru-Kata Tjuta and the land around them have always been very special places. The traditional owners, the Aṉangu, believe that the physical landscape of Uluru was shaped by ancestral beings that still exist today. And Uluru, that sacred rock, is at the very heart of Australia and the Uluru Statement from the Heart. That gracious invitation, as the Prime Minister has said, to walk together to a better future, that historic First Nations consensus on a way forward, guides us like the stars in the Southern skies to a better future, a better future that is centred on making practical differences. I say that again—practical differences—because that is what the Voice will do.

The Voice will make a practical difference, and here's why. For too long governments have made policies for Indigenous Australians and not with Indigenous Australians, and for too long they have contributed to the gap in life expectancy, the gap we all know so well. Because a voice will be an independent advisory body that can give advice to government and the parliament on the issues that affect communities, it's about listening, it's about making a difference. So I say to Australians: We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by supporting the Voice. It's time for recognition, it's time for a voice and it's time to say, 'Yes.'