Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am absolutely delighted with the fascination with the great tradition of the Australian Labor Party to actually undertake debate and—God forbid!—even do it in public, where the people of Australia whom we seek to represent might even get a bit of an indication of the things that we are thinking about, that we are talking about, that we are deciding about, that we are agreeing about and that we are representing our communities about. It's funny that it's the Liberal Party who seem to have a very big problem with that reality.

Political parties that are as well established and function as soundly as the Labor Party have in place processes that allow different views to be put forward. Compare and contrast with the Greens political party, named after a colour, as my colleague Senator Watt said yesterday. Down the far end there, they call for transparency all the time, but they hide everything they do. The Labor Party is a public party. Anybody over 15, you can join us. If you want to be an observer, come and get an observer badge and be part of what's going on in Brisbane. If you want to be there to find out what's going on with AUKUS, start by reading the Prime Minister's comments, which could not be more accurate, clear and certain.

Australia is committed to the technological sharing of the critical new energy resources that are needed to make sure we are strategically placed in our region to do our job to defend our country with those with whom we have alliances. AUKUS has captured the imagination of Australians. People in the Labor Party are Australians. It's captured their imagination. They have questions. They want to know. That's a good thing, the last time I looked. And of course there will be debate in that place, where many of those who have ended up in this place practised their skills of listening to the community, thinking about policy solutions and discussing matters of national importance to make sure that we bring forward a view that is representative of all Australians and is clearly in the national interest.

I was involved with the National Policy Forum, a process that would be surprising to the Liberal Party. It has been going on for months and months, since the middle of last year—a wide-ranging consultation to get all these matters on the public record. Stay tuned, watch what happens at the conference and don't buy into the fear and alarm that are just the standard rhetoric of those opposite. I'm looking forward to conference in Brisbane. I'll be there and I'll be making a contribution, alongside all my colleagues from this place who attend, plus Australians from all around the country who care about politics who have decided Labor is the way in which the country is advanced. They'll be there with me too.

But I don't want to lose the opportunity to make some remarks, in the minute and 25 seconds that remains to me, about the ridiculous question that came from Senator Cash today: 'Is it a one-page document? Is it a three-page document? Is it a seven-page document?' I've read it. I've read it here, to the parliament. It is a one-page document, and it talks about the children. First Nations people love their children, it says. I want to tell you about the powerful education I had on a beach in Elcho Island, from a young Aboriginal girl. She didn't ask me what I did. She came up to me and said hello and asked me: 'Who is your mother? Who is your sister? Who is your brother? Who is your father?' It was all about relationship. It was all about connection. She taught me something very powerful that day about First Nations people: they're connected to the land; they're connected to one another; they're connected to us. They deserve a place in our national founding document as modern Australia. And they deserve a voice. Those children deserve a voice.