Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Six weeks after the Uluru Statement from the Heart was delivered, I was in the very privileged position of attending the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land. I was very lucky to watch the debate unfold, following the Uluru statement, amongst the many thousands of delegates who attended that conference. What was plain to me as I watched this unfold was that there was a tidal wave of change. While there was enormous debate, as a person who's watched trade union conferences, labour movement conferences and parliamentary debates for most of my adult life, I watched people like Marcia Langton, Pat Anderson, Noel Pearson and Dr Yunupingu argue through these issues at that remarkable festival, and I think, if Uluru was the place where this statement was delivered, the Garma festival was actually really important in building the case amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia that this was a really important reform—that this was a reform worth committing to and a reform worth putting the best part of a decade into, for change for Aboriginal people.

I remember the late Dr Yunupingu gave a blistering presentation, including a welcome to the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Yunupingu, of course, from his earliest days had been making arguments for his people, providing leadership to his people, in north-east Arnhem Land but also right across Australia. He was a confidant and an advisor to Prime Minister after Prime Minister. He was utterly clear that this was the reform—voice, treaty and truth—that was required to advance the position of First Nations people in Australia. That man contributed so much for Australia. 'Makarrata,' he said—'coming together after a struggle.' That is what the Uluru statement is about—voice, treaty and truth.

You can draw a consistent line through my political party's, the Labor Party's, response from then to now. Then opposition leader Bill Shorten said at Garma that Labor would support a referendum on a voice to parliament. Following the 2019 election, Anthony Albanese said Labor would back the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, and I watched with enormous pride as the new Prime Minister of Australia in his election night speech pledged not just the Labor Party's support but the government's full support, unequivocal support, for the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full—voice, treaty and truth—and committed the government in its first term to a constitutional referendum to effect that change.

It's a simple proposition, a generous proposition, that we as a country should not let slip away. It is a short and simple proposition. I think I heard one of my friends from the other side here make the argument that it was too short—that it only had 300-something words. Well, the Gettysburg address had 277 words. It will be that important in our national history if we can only achieve this referendum in 2023.

It is the right thing for First Nations Australians. But on top of that it is the right thing for Australia, for a stronger and more confident nation, comfortable with the truth of our history, not prisoners of our past but owning our own past, facing the future together, confident in the knowledge that First Nations have a secure place in our future. We can't be a confident nation if we shirk or deny our history. Part of this history was struggle. There were hundreds of nations across our great continent, on islands and in waterways, for more than 60,000 years, passing down through thousands of generations stories, wisdom, art, agriculture, community and kinship, with songlines across our land.

Our 60,000 years of history is one of our greatest national assets. It should be a source of pride, it should be a source of strength and it should be something that we teach our children at every opportunity. The truth is that 60,000 years of history was shattered by European colonisation. That is the truth. That can't be undone. We are a great nation, sure, but we must see the past as it is and put things right. Voice, treaty and truth are the pathways that have been set out for us. As Dr Yunupingu said: 'Makarrata is coming together after a struggle.' The truth is that 'struggle' is a very generous way indeed of describing what happened. Utter brutality is a much more accurate way of describing much of that history.

I think it's worth Australians reading Peter FitzSimons's account in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age,over last weekend, of the Myall Creek massacre, an event that happened not too far from where I grew up. It's worth reading that account. Everybody should read it. If you're not much of a reader, listen to Troy Cassar-Daley singing 'Shadows on the Hill'—one of my favourite country songs from one of my favourite country artists—again, about a massacre that occurred not very far from where I went to school. These things are true stories. They are things that we need to understand in terms of our history. As I say, we cannot confidently approach our future if we don't have a proper understanding of our past. That is something we should approach with some confidence.

I listened with interest to Senator Bragg's contribution just half an hour ago, and it struck me that there is much in terms of conservative politics and progressive politics that we can all agree upon: the role of institutions, the importance of constitutional arrangements, the importance of following the law and the importance of treating each other decently. It struck me that there is a very strong conservative case for 'yes', and I respect that there is a conservative case for 'no'. I understand that. But what I do ask is that when the cases are put that they are put honestly and truthfully and carefully and, if I might say it like this, that they are put with love for our fellow Australians, not with an intention to divide, not with an intention to belittle and not with an intention to make things worse.

I've listened to Senator Price and Mr Mundine, who lead the official 'no' campaign, say that Aboriginal people don't support the Voice, that it's only academics and lawyers, that Canberra supports the Voice, as if there are no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics and lawyers. It's actually untrue. In every survey that has been undertaken on this issue, more than 80 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders support the Voice. And we should listen to them. Senator Price and Mr Mundine claimed that the Uluru Statement was conceived by just 250 hand-picked delegates, but they miss or fail to mention that the process was designed and led by First Nations people and that delegates achieved broad consensus in a deliberative process that was a remarkable achievement for such a complex set of problems.

If Senator Price and Mr Mundine had their way we would just go back to the way that parliaments too many times have dealt with requests for Indigenous recognition essentially to ignore them, to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians a form of recognition that they don't want and haven't asked for—in fact, have expressly rejected—and ignore the demand, expressed with such clarity and moral purpose, for a constitutionally guaranteed Voice to Parliament. This is constitutional catastrophising at its worse—a scare campaign with little basis in reality. What the constitutional debate will require, once this debate finally leaves this parliament and is handed to the people of Australia, is a discourse that's less about partisan politics and more about genuinely listening to each other.

I have to say that I was deeply concerned about what I saw happen in the area that I grew up in in Tamworth when the 'no' campaign came to Tamworth. Some of the things that were said were utterly divisive, utterly cruel, utterly dishonest and completely unnecessary. The first Gomeroi person elected to Tamworth Regional Council, Marc Sutherland, attended that event as an observer. He said he was disappointed that the group chose Tamworth to launch the campaign and described the language used by the speakers at that rally as really dehumanising. He said the Aboriginal community have made it really clear that that kind of language, like 'real blacks' or 'true blacks', and describing Aboriginal people as 'them' or 'those people' is dehumanising and othering. It's that foundation of language that leads to this supposed superiority. When this debate gets out of this parliament we have to ensure that the debate is conducted respectfully, with decency and with the right values—with Australian values. That's what I want to see, and that's what my colleagues want to see.

In one of the towns in regional New South Wales, in Bourke, the Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project shows what a voice can achieve at the local community level. That project is remarkable. It has had incredible results, with re-offending dropping significantly, a 72 per cent reduction in the number of people under 25 arrested for driving without a licence, a 39 per cent reduction in drug offences and a 35 per cent reduction in driving offences. These are real achievements when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given a voice. We want to bring to Canberra the spirit of that—the capacity to make that argument—in Bourke. That's what this is all about.

Minister Burney was right when she said that this referendum won't be decided by politicians or lawyers but will be determined by the Australian people. This bill is one more step along that process. Of course it will provide for future constitutional referenda as they come up and as they are determined by the Australian government.

The final thing I want to say is that we have democratic rights in this country and we also have duties. I think in the context of this constitutional debate we all have a duty to inform ourselves. If you're listening to this debate and you have not read the Uluru Statement from the Heart, you should read it. It's short. It's one of the best pieces of writing you will ever read. Read it. Understand what is being put. Understand what the arguments are here. Understand what it means for Australia. It's not just going to be good in social justice and democratic terms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians but it is going to be good for making Australia a stronger country.

The final duty of course is to enrol to vote. If you are a young person, particularly a young person in the country, you should enrol to vote. If you're a young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person in a community outside of the city, you should enrol to vote. Let's make sure there is a strong expression of community sentiment and a strong expression for social justice. I look forward very much to the passage of the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 through the parliament.