Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023. I start by acknowledging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia and the traditional owners of this land for more than 65,000 years. I also acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. They are the traditional owners of this land, but they were never recognised in this land's Constitution.

This is the bill that sets out to change that. It sets out to enable an amendment to our Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, another step towards honouring the commitment we made not just to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but to all Australians. It is a bill to give all Australians the opportunity to vote for a better future, a future in which our nation recognises the First People of this land and where First Nations people are consulted on matters that affect them.

The Voice will be an advisory body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who will give advice to government on issues that affect their communities. It is that simple. The referendum working group guided government on the constitutional amendment and the question as well as the design principles of the Voice. Those principles are: the Voice will give independent advice to the parliament and the government; the Voice will be able to make representations to the parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; the Voice can do that proactively, and it can respond to requests from the parliament or the government; and the parliament could also seek input from the Voice early in the development of laws and policies.

The Voice will be chosen by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people based on the wishes of local communities. It will not be appointed by government or parliament; it will be chosen by locals, serving a fixed term to ensure regular accountability. The Voice will be representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, will be gender balanced and will include youth, ensuring that women and the voices of all of those generations will be heard. Members will be chosen from each of the states, territories and Torres Strait Islands with specific remote representation as well as representation from the mainland Torres Strait Islander population.

The Voice will be empowering, community led, inclusive, respectful and culturally informed. The Voice will consult with grassroots communities and with regional bodies to ensure that the representations it makes are informed by their views and experience. The Voice will be accountable, transparent and subject to standard governance and reporting requirements. The Voice will work alongside existing organisations and traditional structures, respecting their work and contribution, and the Voice will not have a program delivery function nor a veto power over this parliament. If the referendum is successful, there will be a process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the parliament and the broader public to finalise the Voice design. Those are the details.

It is the result of years of work and years of consultation and discussion with and within communities. It is the result of more than 1,000 meetings that took place ahead of the First Nations constitutional convention held at Uluru six years ago. It is the result of discussions born out of a need for change because, for too long, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have not been heard. For too long, policies designed in Canberra and imposed on First Nations communities without meaningful consultation have failed to deliver outcomes.

I've been here for many years, and I've heard many and given many Closing the Gap speeches. The reality is we have tried to close the gap without listening to the voices of First Nations people. The consequences of this are evident in the stagnant and grossly disproportionate rates of disadvantage suffered by First Nations peoples, with Indigenous Australians living on average nine years less than non-Indigenous Australians, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys born in the Northern Territory having a shorter life expectancy than boys born in Iraq or Libya.

As Professor Marcia Langton said earlier this year when speaking about the need for the Voice:

This has to change, people's lives have to improve. We know from the evidence that what improves people's lives is when they get a say and that's what this is about.

The Albanese government is committed to that change, to listening to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

I've been privileged through much of my time here to have been guided by Labor's First Nations caucus: former senator Nova Peris, Senator Jana Stewart, Dr Gordon Reid, Marion Scrymgour, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Patrick Dodson and Minister Linda Burney. I want to particularly acknowledge Senator Pat Dodson, the Father of Reconciliation, for his generosity not just with me but with our caucus, the parliament and indeed the whole country. Sadly, he can't be here for this debate and vote on this bill, as he is on leave to receive medical treatment. But I want to honour him and his contribution by sharing with the Senate in my speech some of the words that he sent me for this debate, so I quote Senator Dodson. He said:

This Alteration is profound because it is facing up to Australia's legacy of colonisation and assimilation.

It is in response to the generous invitation of First Peoples in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. A response to those communities who have been oppressed, de-stabilised, and who never ceded their sovereignty.

Through a successful referendum, Australians will finally acknowledge those injustices of the Crown and will do so without undermining the integrity of our political and institutional framework of our nation.

This move to recognise the First Peoples of Australia in the Constitution is part of an action of restorative justice.

Doing this will give a sense of honour for all Australians, as we collectively stand with courage to face these past legacies and ensure that they are not bequeathed to future generations.

This is one commitment our generation can make.

The next steps will be Makarrata, a process of truth-telling and agreement making, where we can reflect on the various narratives that exist in relation to our history over the past 200 years and build on a new foundation together.

I continue the message from Senator Dodson:

In the Yawuru, we have a dreaming called the bugarrigarra and in that we have three sorts of pillars.

We talk about mabu liyan—that is a goodness. A goodness of a spirit. It transcends normal feeling.

It goes to liyan—and that is what we in This Place are trying to do. Not only create good feelings in the Australian population, but to create what we call in our Yawuru language—liyan ngarn—coming together of both our spirits, in a way that is respectful.

The second thing we talk about in Yawuru is mabu ngarrungunil—good community. Good people to live with. Good society. A good race of human beings.

And that is what we are also talking about in the referendum. A good nation. A population of people with the best and highest interest, for the care of everyone and for the betterment of everyone.

And the third thing we talk about in Yawuru is what we call mabu buru—that is good country. A good place. A better world, a safer world, a better economy.

But a place, where we and all Australians can enjoy our environment and grow up knowing we have a rightful place, having resolved the differences between the First Peoples and ourselves, as we go towards the Makarrata.

I am deeply grateful to Senator Dodson for providing his contribution for me to include in my remarks this evening, and I want to underline the opportunity his words reveal. I urge those in the 'no' campaign, arguing against the Voice, to meet that opportunity, to not use the soul and fabric of our nation as a political battleground, to resist putting political self-interest over the national interest, because we must have greater ambition not just to close the gap but to achieve our full potential as a nation, and we can only fulfil our potential when every Australian has a chance to realise their own.

The closing line of the Uluru statement said:

We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

I would like to invite those in the 'no' campaign and those opposite to reconsider this ask. 'We invite you'; it is a gracious and patient ask of us as Australians. It is an ask seeded by a grassroots movement and the culmination of years of discussion, consultation and hard work, including consultation with 1,200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is an ask supported by eight in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Already, this gracious call has been answered by organisations across Australia—faith groups, sporting clubs, national sporting codes, universities, the business sector, trade unions. The call has been answered by every single premier and chief minister across the political spectrum. We have an opportunity to vote 'yes' for constitutional recognition, to vote 'yes' for the form in which it has been requested—a voice to parliament. We have an opportunity to vote 'yes' for that better future. With the hope that this call for empowerment will be answered with the same ambition and grace with which it was issued, I commend this bill to the Senate.