Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Voice referendum is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australians to come together to recognise and listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. What message did AFL great Michael Long share with the Prime Minister this morning about the referendum, and how will it bring our country together?

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

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and for her passionate advocacy for the rights of Indigenous people in her electorate and beyond. Michael Long is, I believe, a great Australian. He is someone who is passionate about uplifting opportunity for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and, indeed, his relatives, including a very young boy, walked with us this morning across the bridge to Parliament House. It was a historic moment and it followed on from his historic trek back in 2004. He is very passionate about making a difference, and he understands very firmly that giving Indigenous Australians a voice will make a difference because, when you listen to people who are directly affected, you have a much greater opportunity to actually make decisions with Indigenous peoples, rather than for them or, in worst-case scenario, to them, which is what has occurred.

For 122 years there has been a voice. It has been a voice from Canberra to Indigenous communities. This is about getting a voice to Canberra from Indigenous communities, a voice that will have no power over this parliament or over government, but it will have the power of its ideas being put forward in a respectful way. I thank Michael along with Pat Farmer, who I had the honour of trying to keep up with on his run for the Voice in Sydney just a few weeks ago. Pat Farmer is a former distinguished member of this place, the former Liberal member for Macarthur.

This morning I was reminded of another event where Indigenous Australians walked to this parliament, and that was Jimmy Clements back in 1927, when this parliament was opened by the Duke of York on 9 May. Jimmy Clements walked from Tumut. He was a Wiradjuri man, and our minister is a Wiradjuri woman. He walked along with John Noble. They were the only two Indigenous people here. The police tried to move Clements on because he was barefoot because he had walked for days and days to get here. But the people outside rose up and said, 'No, he has got a right to be here.' People came together in what must have been one of the first acts of reconciliation and generosity.

On 14 October, just as Indigenous Australians have walked those distances, we are being asked to walk just a few steps with a hand outreached, as I did with Michael this morning, to just join in. That's what Australians do. That is what Australians do, they move forward together. (Time expired)