Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And let me tell you, Senator, you will need to hear this—we have 43 town camps, 72 remote Indigenous communities and 500 homelands. What consideration have you given to the over 100 Aboriginal languages and the translations that should take place? Earlier this year we heard the sister girls on the Tiwi Islands speak very passionately about the fact that it has been enormously difficult for them to be able to talk about the issues and to stand strong as members of the lesbian and gay community across Australia. In the previous debate in this Senate, in November, we discussed and debated the mental health issues and expressed directly concerns about the effect that any plebiscite, postal or otherwise, would have on the health and wellbeing of those in the LGBTI community. I can speak about the people of the Northern Territory and what they have said to me consistently, over the last 12 months in particular, as we have discussed this.

Minister, you did not give a response at all about the cost of this. You played politics with this. One hundred and twenty-two million dollars is a considerable amount of money. This is where we look at, in terms of first nations peoples, the cuts to Aboriginal health and, in the LGBTIQ area specifically, the cuts of $800,000. The question that is coming forward is: where is your concern really, in all of this? We know for a fact, don't we, that this isn't about whether the Australian people should have a right to speak? This is about the Turnbull government's inability to lead this country in a comprehensive and confident way that lets the families of Australia know that this parliament cares—because you don't care. You do not care. You simply do not care. You have taken this parliament, and this country, down a path that is illogical and irresponsible, and basically you've wimped out on your role as government leaders of this country.

An online poll of more than 2,000 people, just in the Northern Territory, showed that 72 per cent—almost three in four respondents—supported change to the Marriage Act. That was the front page of the Northern Territory News today. We in the Northern Territory know for a fact that this parliament can vote today. This parliament should vote today. We have heard time and time again of the unnecessary impact that this will have on families in this country as a result of the cowardice of the Turnbull cabinet and the Turnbull government. It should allow this vote on the floor of both the Senate and the House of Reps. Putting families through extraordinarily torturous trauma, which you have heard of personally from members in this house, where you are wilfully deaf and wilfully blind for your own purposes is not a justification that brings the right way in leading this country. It is a justification only for your personal goals—to hold onto what little team you have in your very divisive cabinet.

The questions that are coming through from families across Australia—and certainly, to my email, from the Northern Territory—are: will Australians living overseas be able to vote; what will the government do to ensure people are on the electoral roll; what are you putting in place to ensure the ABS doesn't repeat the mistakes of the census operation; how will you ensure Aboriginal people living remotely and in town camps will have a vote in this, the 50th year since the referendum of 1967? (Time expired)

Question agreed to.