Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I just made a very clear notation, Senator McKenzie. I'm happy to take your interjection. For those many who do, are you not prepared to be generous enough to accept their invitation to walk this path of reconciliation? And, if not, why not? Why would you not want to walk the path of reconciliation in this country? What possible reason could you have for not wanting to do that except for your own selfish politics?

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Senator Whish-Wilson, resume your seat, please. We allow a fairly broad scope—

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Senator McKenzie, I'm speaking. If you can't remain silent, please remove yourself from the chamber. Senator Whish-Wilson, we have a fairly broad scope during the committee stage, but the intention is to address questions to the government regarding the bill, not have a debate with an individual member from the opposition. If you have more you'd like to contribute in the general order of a committee stage, please do, but please don't engage in just a one-on-one dialogue with a member of the opposition.

Thank you, Chair, but I'm addressing the elephant in the room here that no-one else is prepared to call out. I think the government are doing a very good job and being very calm in answering these questions, but there are bigger issues at stake here. I've been singled out several times by Senator Nampijinpa Price about white guilt. I said it in my second reading speech, so I'm happy to say it again: I do feel guilty. I do feel guilty that my ancestors invaded this country and colonised this country and dispossessed the First Nations people that were here. I do, and so do many other Australians. That is why we do want a pathway to reconciliation. I'm prepared to admit that. I think that's what this is about—this is about uniting the country and accepting the generous invitation from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and I know a lot of other Australians feel that way. I just don't understand why we can't agree on accepting that invitation and walking that pathway.

Every which way I look at it, it comes back to the politics of the LNP—the politics of self-interest, deliberately stoking division in this country for their own electoral gain. It's opposition for opposition's sake. It sickens me that we are in here at 2.30 in the morning hearing detailed questions from a political party that opposed the Voice before the detail was even available. They don't want to hear the answers to this. They are simply here to be oppositional. I will be devastated, as I know many other Australians of all colours will, if the Voice referendum fails in this country, because I do not know what the pathway forward will be for reconciliation.