Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Minister. I appreciate that response. As I said during my comments in response to Senator Thorpe's amendments, the Greens absolutely care deeply about First Nations sovereignty, and we do want to place on the record our thanks to the government for their advice on this matter and state clearly that that advice, as well as independent legal advice that the Greens have sought, has assured us that First Nations sovereignty will not be impacted by this process.

In that context, Chair, I will shortly seek leave to table two letters, both of which are addressed to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Mr Bandt. I will circulate them in a minute. I'll just explain what these letters are. Both of these letters are addressed to the Leader of the Australian Greens, Mr Adam Bandt MP. One is from the Referendum Working Group. The other is from the Attorney-General. Both of these letters are dated 2 February 2023, and they provide advice around First Nations sovereignty.

The letter from the Attorney-General says this: 'As the government has made clear repeatedly, the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution does not affect the sovereignty of any group or body, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Such a view has also been expressed clearly and unequivocally on the public record by many eminent legal experts over the course of the last decade, including most recently by Dr Hannah McGlade and Professor George Williams.' So that is a quote from the letter from the Attorney-General to Mr Bandt dated 2 February this year.

The letter from the Referendum Working Group to Mr Bandt of the same date says, 'As you are aware, legal experts have repeatedly made it clear that the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution does not impact sovereignty.' The letter goes on to say: 'Today we received the referendum legal expert group's latest advice on the Prime Minister's draft constitutional amendment, which said, among other things, "All members of the Expert Group agreed that the draft provision would not affect the sovereignty of any group or body."'

I now seek leave to table those two letters, and I can indicate for the Senate that the whips have agreed that these letters be tabled.

Leave granted.

I table the letters. I'll just make a couple of comments about those letters. As is obvious from the words that I read out, both of these letters make it clear that sovereignty of First Nations people will not be impacted by this amendment. Obviously, the proposed alteration to the Constitution has generated a lot of public commentary, and some of that commentary has been around whether or not the proposed alterations would impact First Nations sovereignty. Those discussions have occurred out in the community, within many groups, and they have occurred also, obviously, within the Greens—both within our party and within our party room. Whilst this matter was resolved, in our view, pretty early on in the conversation, it is worth making sure that the record is clear about this so that interested Australians can see what advice we have received and how that advice was able to alleviate our initial concerns. So, Minister, I want to ask you firstly in this context: can the government please affirm that the advice provided in these letters is still correct in the opinion of the government?