Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nampijinpa Price for her question. I want to start by acknowledging, first, that for many Australians, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the referendum result is disappointing and many feel a deep sense of loss.

I want to make the point, in response to Senator Nampijinpa Price's question, that this was a request from Indigenous people. I appreciate you have a different view to those that were consulted—those who came together at Uluru in 2017 and issued the Uluru statement after a process that involved hundreds of meetings and thousands of people. This government promised that we would seek to implement that statement and we kept that promise.

We respect and accept the decision of the Australian people and we all know how hard referenda are. Only eight out of 44 have succeeded, and all of those had bipartisan support. Regrettably, there was no bipartisan support in relation to this referendum. But this isn't the end of our efforts to bring people together. I think it's important to remember that, whilst Australians did vote against this constitutional change, Australians did not vote against closing the gap or reconciliation. I noticed that Senator Liddle made similar comments today or yesterday.

The point of the referendum, as Senator Nampijinpa Price knows too well, is that was the request that came from Indigenous leaders and representatives from the Referendum Working Group and from the Uluru Statement from the Heart and what lay beneath it, which was a grassroots process. I accept that some have a different view, but I think it is very clear that this was a request to us. It was a request that the Prime Minister made a commitment to honour and he did.