Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Therein lies really what this is all about, Senator Cash, and I just want to give an explanation. I'll leave the legality to our rep for the Attorney-General. If we look at a lot of the reasoning as to why the dialogues leading up to the Uluru statement came to be, in terms of the intent behind the Voice, it is the mere fact that they've not had any influence in terms of policies about them, and I'll give an example, and it's only one example. You're right; it is about how the representatives on the Voice influence policy or give advice on particular policies—for example, the Northern Territory intervention. I'll just throw that out there as one example. How do they become involved at the inception of the thought before it becomes a policy at the end?

Now, we all have opportunities, and you know, having sat around the cabinet table, that you get a chance to have reports from different groups who have a response on whether a particular bill will be sufficient or on what the weaknesses and strengths of that bill are. In this instance, it's akin to the fact that First Nations people have not ever had that involvement and say. So that is a constant view that has kept coming through over the years with the dialogues, and even with the conversations now. So, again, if we are successful in this referendum, the most appropriate way that that can be done will be something that I look forward to debating here in the Senate so that that advice can be there at the very inception of any kind of policy that will have an impact—and, as I said, in such a dramatic fashion, such as something like the intervention or anything similar.