David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin my contribution to this debate on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) Bill 2023 by acknowledging the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, who are the traditional custodians of this land—land over which sovereignty has never been ceded. I also want to acknowledge all the First Nations peoples in this chamber from across the political spectrum. I pay particular tribute to the contribution of my colleague Senator Dorinda Cox, a strong Yamatji-Noongar woman and a proud representative of her state of Western Australia who, I might say, has shown genuine leadership in this debate within my own party and in the broader national debate. But let's start by acknowledging the truth that the land we're on was taken by force and is retained by force. But it always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of this bill, which will allow for a referendum on whether or not to amend the Australian Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia, and establish an advisory body known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, which will be able to make representations directly to parliament and the executive on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. On one view, how could this possibly be controversial? The Greens were the first party to endorse the Statement from the Heart in full. While we do support this Voice referendum, we acknowledge that it's just one step towards the greater goal of First Nations empowerment and justice. Critically, as Greens, we fully support and are fully committed to progressing the truth-telling and treaty-making elements of the statement alongside the Voice to parliament. Truth, treaty and Voice are the core elements of the Statement from the Heart, and I want to acknowledge that we have so much more to do to achieve that package in this place.

Before this year's joint parliamentary committee's recommendation to pass the bill, the 2018 Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was asked to consider the work of the 2012 expert panel, the previous joint select committee, the Statement from the Heart and the referendum council. That committee also concluded by recommending a detailed design process for both the national Voice and local and regional voices; and that the government consider legislative, executive and constitutional options to establish the Voice, support for truth-telling and a National Resting Place.

The parliament has dragged its feet long enough to take meaningful action which addresses these long-standing historical injustices. Now, in 2023, we are still seeing First Nations culture under systemic attack.

Language forms an integral part of Indigenous culture and spirituality, and, at the time of colonisation, there were over 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages on this continent. Today, there are still approximately 145 First Nations languages spoken, which is remarkable. Just by comparison, all of Europe just has 24 official languages. First Nations linguistic heritage in this country is under real threat, with some 110 of those languages spoken by so few people that they are critically endangered. Yet we do nothing. That is unacceptable.

Culture lives, breaths and stays alive through children and family. Every day, far too many First Nations children are still being taken from their families, from their culture and their country. Some are stolen and put with strangers in out-of-home care and others are locked up in the most inhumane child prisons, which are devastating reminders that the Stolen Generation has still not ended. Where's the outrage about that from those opposed to the Voice? Where's the urgency on that from those who want to campaign 'no' to the Voice?

The damage and loss doesn't end at childhood. First Nations people account for 32 per cent of adults incarcerated in this country, despite forming just over three per cent of the population. This is a result of the material and legal bias faced by First Nations people in this country. Where's the outrage about that from those outraged by this constitutional amendment?

This structural unfairness is more than unacceptable. To be poor, excluded and silenced on your own land while surrounded by wealth and privilege is downright criminal. And it will be solved only by empowering First Nations peoples to set their own destiny, to build stronger communities and to gain a fair share of this country's wealth for their families, their futures, their kids and their elders.

Today, the Australian Constitution does not acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of this country, and it still includes provisions which allow discriminatory laws based on race. When we have coalition MPs saying the Constitution should have no provisions in relation to race, where's the outrage about the current race powers in the Constitution which have only been used to target and discriminate against First Nations peoples? The confected outrage on that point from the coalition is appalling.

A successful referendum can and must be the start of what will be decades of positive change for First Nations peoples guided by them that moves us towards truth-telling, treaty-making and self-determination. And I repeat, as Greens, we are committed to working towards this.

A constitutionally entrained Voice for First Nations peoples has seen support from all parts of civil society, both within First Nations communities and outside. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' representative bodies such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, Queensland land councils, Northern Territory land councils, Western Australia land councils and the Coalition of Peaks are just some of the First Nations bodies that have voiced their loud support for these reforms.

Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, Mr Chin Tan, stated that the Voice is a tool for realising the right to self-determination and one that will 'help better outcomes for First Nations peoples'. The Law Council of Australia, the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia, Multicultural Australia and many other groups, including professional sports clubs, have raised their support for the Voice to parliament.

This referendum is about recognising and respecting the First Peoples of this country and their culture, a culture that is the oldest continuous living culture in the world, a culture that has looked after this land, looked after their kids, looked after their peoples for over 65,000 years. We're just but a blink of the eye. This institution is a blink of the eye in comparison with that history.

I also recognise that there are committed, principled and engaged people from First Nations communities who are deeply suspicious of this move towards a voice. They've told me that they are concerned the same self-elected First Nations people who already dominate many of the formal engagement processes with governments also will dominate the Voice. They ask, quite rightly, how will First Nations people on the ground in towns in my home state of New South Wales, like Brewarrina or Bourke or Wilcannia, be heard and represented in this new Voice? They're right to ask these questions, and they're right to be deeply suspicious of any actions taken by this parliament. I understand the scepticism; I understand the pushback. It comes from experience, and it needs to be respected.

I've heard from so many First Nations mums and grandmothers who tell me of the fear they have of white government cars driving into their neighbourhoods to steal their kids. I've listened to them tell me of the panic they felt and their desperate moves to hide their kids when FACS or DoCS drive into their street. I've listened to young First Nations young people, who tell me their main engagement with government is being hassled on the street by police when their only crime is being black in public. I've seen First Nations elders crying when their pleas to protect their country from mines, bulldozers and loggers are ignored. The wounds are then torn deep in their culture and spirit. And I've seen, time after time, how this place ignores those cries. You can't hear those truths and be anything other than suspicious of government. This place, this parliament, far more often damages than helps First Nations communities with the laws and decisions it makes and the pleas and the calls that it doesn't listen to.

However, we also need to have hope that we can learn from this. Turn the ship around. Start making decisions that empower the people who know best how to advance the interests of First Nations people, which is, of course, First Nations peoples themselves. That is the hope of the Voice, and that's what I'll be voting for. First Nations communities around this country have faced more than two centuries of colonisation, oppression and violence. Today they stand strong and proud and continue to work, and to work bloody hard, to overcome the challenges facing them from our nation's structural and institutional oppression. They're asking us to believe in them and their capacity to decide their own future.

The Voice to Parliament is just one step towards achieving meaningful justice for First Nation peoples while we progress truth telling, treaty making and self-determination. I don't think the Voice is a magic solution to all of this, but it is a start. And this referendum will be a moment for the Australian people to say clearly and loudly, 'Yes, we want to walk this walk with First Nations peoples.' Together, we can take that first step on Voice and also travel together along the harder, the longer path of truth telling and treaty making. But all hard journeys start with a first step. Let's take that step today and vote 'yes' on this bill.