Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Indigenous Australians. Referendum Working Group member Thomas Mayo has stated:

We need the power of the Constitution behind us so we can organise like we've never organised before.

and:

… we keep going, we maintain this momentum until we change the system, until we tear down the institutions …

Was the minister aware of Mr Mayo's views when she appointed him to the Referendum Working Group?

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

Order! The Assistant Treasurer will remain silent for this answer.

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

I addressed this issue yesterday, and the day before. I am responsible for what I say. The referendum is about two things. It's about recognition and it's about listening. It's about making a practical difference. I simply will not engage in the style of politics that we're seeing today.

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

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How will the Voice provide better opportunities to close the gap in health outcomes for First Nations people?

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

I give the call to the—the House will come to order, because I want to hear from the Minister for Health and Aged Care.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for his question. Later this year, Australians will have the chance to vote to change our Constitution to recognise the place of First Nations people in this country, more than 30 years after the High Court finally swept aside the longstanding fiction that this was vacant land when Europeans arrived more than 200 years ago.

Australians will get a chance to give shape to that recognition through a voice to parliament and to the executive, and I can't think of a more important area where we should listen to that voice than health. For too many years the parliament and health ministers of both political persuasions have been confronted with the appalling health gaps that exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, health challenges that unarguably impact Indigenous Australians differently, to use the language of the Attorney General, but also some health challenges that are largely unknown to non-Indigenous Australians, challenges like rheumatic heart disease which was largely eradicated from developed countries more than 50 years ago. It is a disease of grinding poverty. Doctors in our major cities will likely never see a case of rheumatic heart disease but the rates in remote Aboriginal communities are among the highest in the world, higher even than in sub-Saharan Africa.

These health gaps are reflected most starkly through eight fewer years of life for Indigenous Australians but they are riddled right through the system and, in some cases, they are, frankly, getting much, much worse. While cancer deaths, very happily, declined overall by 10 per cent last decade across Australia, they actually increased by 12 per cent for Indigenous Australians. None of this is news. We have all known about this for years and we have all worked hard to close the gap. But with the best of intentions and with substantial investment, the current approach simply isn't working and, in the few areas where it is, it's simply not working fast enough. Frankly, we do need a new approach, and I am confident that a Voice to the parliament and, frankly, a Voice to the health minister will help find better, more effective, practical ways to close the gap and allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to live longer, healthier, happier lives.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians. Yesterday the minister told this House that subsection (iii) of the Voice constitutional amendment means parliament will determine the functions and the powers of the Voice. Isn't it the case that subsection (iii) explicitly deprives parliament of that power to make laws, where those laws conflict with the Voice's powers under subsection (ii), and interpreting the scope of those would be a matter for the High Court, not this parliament?

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

The member for Page will cease interjecting. The Leader of the House on a point of order?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not sure if it is possible to have a question that is more directly seeking a legal opinion than the one that was just asked. The standing orders have very few prohibitions but that is one of them.

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

I will hear from the Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a question that goes to matters that the minister put to the House yesterday, so it's perfectly standard to ask the minister to explain what she was saying in her answer yesterday.

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

The part of the question regarding a legal opinion, obviously, is not in the standing orders. The question regarding the minister's answer yesterday is in order, so she is able to refer to that part of the question, and I give her the call.

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

I absolutely stand by my response yesterday.

Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the education gap between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians? How will the Voice help to close that gap?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the sensational member for Tangney for his question. This year all Australians have a chance to make history, to put our history in our Constitution and to recognise the fact that Australia didn't begin when Captain Cook arrived but that the Australian story—our story—goes back more than 60,000 years. We have a chance this year to give that history a voice. Why are Indigenous Australians asking us for that voice? To answer that question, imagine this: imagine a life where your brother or your sister dies a decade younger than they should. Imagine a life where your children don't go to preschool, or where they fall behind at primary school, a life where they will never finish high school. Imagine a life where your children are more likely to go to jail than to university. Just imagine that for a second. That's not a life that you would cop, but that's a life that a lot of Indigenous Australians live. If you lived that life, you would know that this is about people, not parking tickets. It's not about interest rates. This is about things like this.

At the moment, 56 per cent of young children start prep or kindy developmentally ready to start school, but only 34 per cent of young Indigenous kids do. And that number's getting worse, not better; the gap is getting bigger, not smaller. At the moment, Indigenous Australians are three times more likely to fall behind at school than the other kids in the classroom. At the moment, 82 per cent of students finish high school in Australia, but only 57 per cent of Indigenous kids do. One in two young Australians in their 20s have a uni degree but only seven per cent of young Indigenous Australians do.

We all want this to change. Everyone who is good, fair and decent in this country wants this to change. But if we want it to change, we have to change not just what we do but the way we do things. And that's what the Voice is about. It's not me saying that. It's not us saying that. It's what Indigenous Australians are saying. They're asking us to listen, asking to be heard—asking for something that will have no impact on most of us but could just change the lives of a lot of other Australians. As Noel Pearson has said, ultimately, the Voice will demand better results out of school education. If that's not a reason to vote yes, then I don't know what is.