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

The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples first met in 2011. The Howard government defunded that. Then First Nations people, with the support of the government, were asked to go away and look at Constitutional recognition and how they might be heard. They didn't want just Constitutional recognition; they wanted to be heard, because our nation has had no history of listening to First Nations people.

The Uluru Statement asks for a Constitutionally enshrined Voice to our parliament. That is something that needs to go in our Constitution. It must go in our Constitution, otherwise—as we've seen throughout history—that Voice, that right to be heard can simply be done away with. The parliament has the power to make such laws, and the people have the power to insist that the parliament make such laws so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be heard in a Voice to parliament and so it can't be done away with.

Of course, as legislators in this place, we should also know that we have the power to change the laws that the Constitution gives us the power to change. The future laws that govern a Voice can be amended and changed by this parliament, should the referendum be successful. The opposition are seeking to allege that we are not listening to the people. Hundreds and thousands—millions—of Australians are united in the call to listen to Australia's First Nations people.