Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all senators who have contributed to this debate. There have been some fabulous speeches, none more so than the one we just heard from our good friend Senator McCarthy, the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians.

We are at this point on our journey on constitutional recognition because of the work, leadership and stories of countless Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over many decades. I acknowledge them and I thank them. I'd particularly like to acknowledge and thank the Minister for Indigenous Australians in the other place, Linda Burney, and our Senate colleague, again, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator McCarthy.

I'd also like to acknowledge and thank our colleague Senator Patrick Dodson for the work he has done over so many years to advance the cause of reconciliation, including in this term of parliament as the special envoy for reconciliation and the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Pat, we're all thinking of you right now.

I also thank those many non-Indigenous Australians who have worked towards constitutional recognition in the development of the Voice.

The Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 is a critical step in fulfilling the first request made in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. If approved at the referendum, there will be four simple lines inserted into the Constitution. Those lines will finally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's First Peoples in our founding legal document after more than 120 years of exclusion and omission. Those lines will enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice in the Constitution. The Voice is the formal constitutional recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates called for in the Uluru statement. Through the Voice, we will listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to create practical change and make a difference where it matters—in areas like employment, health, education, housing and justice.

I'd like to address three issues that were raised by those who oppose the Voice over the course of this debate. Some senators have asserted that the Voice would undermine equality in the Constitution and divide Australians based on race. This is untrue. This is about recognising the status of First Peoples in this country.