Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak tonight to address the painful process we as Australians have all been through in the Voice to Parliament referendum. This weekend past, not one state supported the referendum. Only the ACT voted for it, perhaps in an expression of regret that no Australian public service has yet managed to make any real and enduring impact on closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes in this country. Most Labor-held seats rejected the Voice, including that of the Minister for Indigenous Australians, which means that she not only did not understand the mood of the nation but did not understand her own constituents. The Voice was equally lost in all seats and states represented by the Indigenous members of parliament in this place. I do not know whether the Prime Minister has any idea of what he did to this country; his words on Saturday night indicated he might not. 'We will do better,' he seemed to suggest, but it was obvious to all that he could have done better from day one.

In the week the Prime Minister announced the proposed words for the referendum, I met with representatives of the Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, Rachel Perkins and Tony Nutt. You do not get two people of better will, intent, hope and indeed expertise in telling our nation's stories to itself, albeit in vastly different contexts. It was with a sullen soul that I told them that day that, now that we have seen the words that will be put to the Australian people, we will have no choice; the Prime Minister has put the Constitution and the Westminster system of government on the line for an apparent whim and prayer. For that is what it was for most Australians: a message of hope and heart, from which the head was sorely lacking. Had better brains been applied to the task, the Prime Minister would have seen that, at a minimum, a proper constitutional convention was necessary, in line with what we have done when referenda have been attempted in the past—not just to raise awareness for the need for change but also to ensure that the proposed change had its supporters, advocates, narrators and champions from all walks of life.

Instead, the Prime Minister threw the country neck-deep into a debate marked by scorn and spite. I watched as my words of gratitude towards those who had met with me and given me time so that I could understand their lived experience and their deeply felt hope that things could be done better were turned into barbs, with assertions that I had used them to bolster the 'no' case. My words had been an expression of gratitude for what were important and challenging conversations which rigorously tested my instinctive constitutional conservatism and my conscience. You do not get better people than those who contribute to our local Indigenous groups in Flinders, like Living Culture and Willum Warrain. You do not get better.

At the time, one of the prominent elders in my community wrote me a letter of thanks for how I'd addressed the issue in this place, and for months I kept this safe from others to protect him from the near gravity-defying, twisted interpretations of well-meaning acts by activists in the 'yes' camp. The good news is this perversion of will and intent was the exception rather than the rule in Flinders. Most people, the vast majority, participated in the referendum with respect and kindness to one another. I thank the 'yes' volunteers who demonstrated the cheering bonhomie that is shared by passionate and opposing advocates at election time. I thank the 'no' volunteers in Flinders, some of whom brought to their advocacy their direct lived experience in Indigenous communities and their deep desire to see things improved.

Today, I feel for those who I know are in pain, people for whom this meant so much, like Dean Parkin and Mark Textor who, together with my longstanding friends and mentors Julian Leeser and Greg Craven, kept calm grace by their side as much as was humanly possible. I am filled with esteem and awe for my colleagues Jacinta Price and Kerrynne Liddle and their fellow campaigner Warren Mundine, who, together with their families, endured months of hate and fury doing what they knew in their gut was right. We owe it to them, just as we owe it to my constituents in Flinders who desperately want to see us address wrongs past, to use the mechanisms we have, to listen more closely and more keenly, and to shape more responsibly and to explain more completely the decisions we make in public policy and the impact they will have on First Nations Australians. In that, the Albanese government will have this side of the chamber's full support.