Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was deeply moved and honoured by my attendance at the Walking Together workshops in the federal seat of Canning over the weekend, and I express my deep gratitude to Youth Off The Streets educators Nicole Laupepa, a Gomeroi woman, and Jacqui Parker, a non-Indigenous trainer. Over the last six years, since the Uluru Statement from the Heart, they have held more than 300 workshops with members of the community hungry to learn more about the statement. Their workshop, indeed, helped me and many others who attended to gain a deeper understanding of who we are as a nation. Their work reminds us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have such diverse cultures and helps us deepen our understanding of our sense of self as a nation. They used their own story as Australians—one as a white Jewish woman and the other as a Gomeroi woman—to show what it is to have lived experience that you bring to the table in your national identity and what it means in a national debate like this. It points out that it is simply good governance to listen to lived experience and to listen to communities about matters that affect them. Without doing that, we can only fail in what we deliver. The Voice to parliament will enable our government and parliaments to consult with communities to achieve better outcomes.