Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022. This bill provides the foundation for a fair and transparent referendum on a voice to parliament by the end of this year. As already noted, the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act has not been used since 1999. It has not kept pace with the improvements we have made to the Commonwealth Electoral Act—improvements that ensure we have free, fair and democratic federal elections. The primary purpose of this bill is to replicate the improvements that have been made to the Electoral Act for this referendum and for referenda into the future. It will mean that the experience people have come to expect when they vote in a federal election will be the same as when they cast their vote on referendum day.

This will be one of the most significant votes most people will make in their lifetimes. Referenda are infrequent, but they are at the heart of our democracy. They provide Australians the opportunity to use their right to vote to consider changes to the Australian Constitution. The Constitution is an act of the Westminster parliament for the people of Australia, passed in 1901. Only the people of Australia, voting in a referendum, can change the Constitution. In that sense it is the Australian people's document. In the forthcoming referendum the Australian people will be asked if they support the principle of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution and whether they should have a say to the parliament and the executive on matters that affect them. The details of what the Voice is, how it functions and how it will influence change for the better will be dealt with by the parliament after further consultations with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

So what does this bill actually do? It seeks to update the laws governing the machinery of referenda. The last referendum was held without modern online systems, without social media and without email campaigns. It was also held without many of the rules and protections that have been built into the Electoral Act since then. Those incremental changes may not be obvious to many members of the public or even to many of us in this chamber, but they have become essential to the smooth running of the voting process. The important changes made by this bill will include banning foreign donations from the referendum campaign, allowing people to apply for a postal vote online rather than using a paper form, vote-saving measures so that the people's vote can be valid where their intentions are clear, enabling early sorting of pre-poll votes to support a timely result on the day, extending protections to prevent multiple voting, updating authorisation rules so voters know who is behind political materials and extending contingency measures to enable the AEC to conduct referenda safely in times of emergency. The bill also introduces a funding and disclosure scheme to ensure there's transparency and accountability.

No matter what your views are on the Voice, these changes should be a no-brainer. It's about ensuring people who turn up to vote at the referendum can vote in the same way they are used to voting at a federal election, it's about transparency and accountability, it's about bringing our referendum machinery into the 21st century and, importantly, it's about ensuring an efficient and fair vote so that when we head to the ballot box later in the year, we can be confident that this referendum is conducted on a sound and safe foundation. It is important too for Australians to be able to focus on what the referendum is about and the significance of the principle they are being asked to vote for: a voice to the parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Leaders of the Uluru statement understood that it is the Australian people who make decisions about our Constitution. That is why they invited us to all walk with them and support their recognition in the Constitution. For 122 years our Constitution has failed to recognise the First Peoples of this country and their continuous connection to the land for more than 60,000 years. We were deemed by the founding fathers to be a dying race, so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are conspicuously absent and unrecognised in our founding document. The political power to lord it over us was held by the states. It was not until 1967 that we were finally counted in the census and the Commonwealth was given a clear power in the Constitution to deal with us. While the 1967 referendum was an historic moment of national unity, the work of constitutional recognition is unfinished business.

Fifty years later and more than a century after Federation, there was another constitutional convention at Uluru, this one held by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Uluru convention followed months of consultation and 12 regional dialogues that involved more than 12,000 First Nations people from across the country. It built on work previously done by the constitutional recognition committee. At Uluru, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people spoke up about how they wanted to be recognised in the Constitution. They presented us with a proposal that is elegant in its simplicity and potent in its capacity to achieve practical change for their lives—a constitutionally enshrined voice that can advise the parliament and government so that better policies and laws are made. It's a fact: you get better outcomes when you consult people on the issues that affect their lives. This is what is proposed after almost 250 years.

During the last sittings, I spoke about meetings I held in regional Western Australia during the week of action on the Voice. I spoke about the traditional owners, elders and community leaders from these small and often forgotten communities. They explained why the Voice is important to them. We heard from the Kariyarra elders that the Voice is 'the next step in a long history of advocacy by Aboriginal people of the Pilbara'. We heard from the Yinggarda people and their elders, who said, 'The Voice will empower community voices.' And we heard from staff who worked at local organisations, health services and organisations rehabilitating young people about the differences that the Voice will make to their work.

They need to have a say over the policies and laws that we make in this place that affect their lives, laws that affect their health and ability to get jobs and housing and the wellbeing and education of their children. These are people who have worked hard to improve the living conditions of their communities. They deserve to be heard at the national level, and they will be heard if the referendum is successful. So, when we consider this bill about the mechanical provisions, keep in mind what it is ultimately about.

I want to briefly reflect on our experience of negotiating this bill with some of those opposite. From the start we have extended the hand of bipartisanship on the referendum. The Voice should be above fearmongering and political gains. The government has agreed, in a show of good faith, to reinstate the official pamphlet, yet the support of the opposition is still wavering—or, as I've heard today, they will not be supporting the bill. On this side, we are treating both 'yes' and 'no' campaigns even-handedly—zero public funding for both, because, as I have said, this is the people's referendum; it's for the people to organise their own campaigns and their own funding. Those on the other side believe in the free market. Well, to them I say that both supporters and naysayers are free to fund their own campaigns, within the legal constraints of the bill, of course.

So now is the time for those on the other side to support this bill, whether or not they intend to finally support the Voice, because this bill is about fair, transparent and accountable processes. It is about recognising that it's a modern world, much changed from the time nearly a quarter of a century ago when Australians last voted in a referendum. It's a modern world, and it will be a better world if this legislation is passed, because it will lay the groundwork for a referendum that will create a legacy—if the referendum is supported—that all of us in this chamber can then be proud of.

In closing, let me say something about the AEC. The AEC have been working very closely with the engagement group that the government has set up, and they have been very responsive to many of the group's suggestions and concerns. In parts of our country and some of the jurisdictions, their work has actually increased the voter registration for Indigenous peoples. They have been responsive to the calls about remote polling and the need to stay longer, and they are even considering other matters. They are undertaking work to help Australians attend, be informed about the process and be able to exercise their vote in this very important referendum. This bill is well worth supporting, and I commend it.