Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish everyone had heard Ian Hamm speak at a forum I hosted in my electorate a week and a half ago in relation to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. A Yorta Yorta man, Ian was taken from his family when he was just three weeks old. This highly eloquent speaker set out succinctly what he believes the upcoming referendum is about. He argues that the referendum, at its heart, is about two questions. First, should Aboriginal people be able to speak? Second, should we allow Aboriginal people to speak about the things that are directly about them? Ian says the voice is not about fixing the past but what we want this country to look like in the future.

Another speaker, the University of Melbourne's Professor Kristen Rundle, explained succinctly why the proposed constitutional amendment takes the form it does, giving parliament the responsibility for the details, with the Constitutional change setting out the scaffolding. Professor Rundle said that she was committed to the voice because it is what Indigenous people had asked for and she trusted the process that had led to the Uluru Statement From the Heart and the Voice proposal as one of the most democratic ever undertaken in Australia.

At the same function, Aunty Geraldine Atkinson, one of the founding co-chairs of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, said that a voice would lead to better outcomes on the ground for Aboriginal people as they would have a meaningful say on how funds would be spent and how programs would be run and operated. I thank those three speakers and all of the many dozens of people from the community who attended this very highly successful forum.