Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

or GALLAGHER (—) (): I thank Senator Urquhart for the question, and for the support she's providing in Tasmania for the campaign for a voice to our parliament and Constitutional recognition for First Nations Australians. Listening to the advice of the Voice will help inform decisions to direct funds where they will have the most impact and deliver the best outcomes in those key areas of Indigenous health, education, employment and housing. We are still seeing around an eight-year gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared with other Australians. Nationally, 68.1 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20 to 24 years had attained year 12 or equivalent qualification compared to 90.7 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians, and only 81.4 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are living in appropriately sized, not overcrowded, housing compared with 93.5 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians.

What we are doing now is not working and it is time for us to walk a different path together as a nation, to change the structure of how we make decisions that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and then change the outcomes. That is what this referendum is about. It is about bringing the country together and working with each other to drive those better outcomes. As Michael Long so powerfully said this morning in Canberra:

I don't want to be talking about closing the gap in another 20 years or 30 years. Let's do something about it, you know, and part of that is being able to advocate on issues that affect Indigenous people. We haven't got it right yet. It's unbelievable that in 2023 we haven't got this right.

But on October 14 we have a chance to make this right. On referendum day, each one of us can take action to close the gap by voting yes for constitutional recognition through a voice to our nation's parliament.'