Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

To assist the smooth running of the chamber, I indicate that I intend to keep my remarks quite brief.

On the streets of Sydney, in the years before the outbreak of the Second World War, few women, let alone Indigenous women, had much of a voice. Pearl Gibbs was one of the few who did, speaking in public and political forums like Speakers' Corner in the Domain. She was born in La Perouse and she had moved as a young woman to western New South Wales. However, in 1936 new legislation expanded the power of the Aborigines Protection Board, and she experienced most directly the coercive and controlling powers of that institution and its impact on her and on the communities in which she lived. So, in the late 1930s, she returned to Sydney and she devoted herself to activism. She worked in the Aborigines Progressive Association and she spoke publicly about the need for change. In 1938, in one of her many speeches, she said this: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I am an Australian. I have lived here all my life. I love my country and I love its people. I wish something more for them than riches and prosperity. I wish for their greatness and nobility. A country needs be great that is just.'

Like Pearl Gibbs, I am a proud Australian. The truth is that Pearl Gibbs had more reason than most to understand that loving this country does not mean pretending that it is perfect or maintaining a wilful blindness to its past. My firm belief is this: to be a proud Australian means to see this country with open eyes; to love this country is to devote yourself with courage and decency and tireless work to make it better. And Pearl Gibbs did that. She worked all of her life for recognition and justice for First Nations people. She was part of the campaign that saw success in the 1967 referendum, and that is part of her legacy—her legacy of courage and patriotism.

The referendum that will be enabled by the passage of this legislation is as much about our history as it is about our future. In recognising the past, we can declare today and into the future that we are united in our determination to build a common community on the land that we all share.

Thousands of histories are woven together in this community: migrants from around the world who turned to Australia for a better life, those sent here against their will and, of course, our First Nations people, who have loved this land since time immemorial. No matter how we arrived, all of us share this same continent and we share a common future, and the richness of our diverse histories only enhances that future that is within our grasp.

From all walks of life, patriotic Australians have worked to make this country better, to unite people, to advance and defend democracy, to improve our standard of living, to protect the land that we love. Together we are building on this continent a society for which there is much to be proud and which few match—an open, vibrant, successful, multicultural democracy with a continent to ourselves, a home unparalleled in natural beauty and the oldest-living culture in the world. For those of us who want to see the Australian nation fulfil the aspirations, the decency and the courage of our citizens, our work is unfinished and there is much to do—not least in improving the material conditions of First Nations people.

Pearl Gibbs was right: justice begets greatness but greatness requires justice. And, for First Nations people, justice requires recognition. Through this referendum, I am confident we will take the chance to demonstrate the greatness of this country found in the courage and the quiet decency of our fellow Australians.