Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

[Yanyuwa language not transcribed]. Thank you for enabling me to speak in my language, the language of the Yanyuwa people, which is one of hundreds of First Nations languages in this country. What I said was to acknowledge that I am a Yanyuwa woman. I am of the li-antha wirriyarra, which is the sea country people of the north, and from Borroloola, and I pay my respects to all present.

I am absolutely appalled by the motion brought forward by One Nation. It is beneath this Senate to even begin to bring in other aspects of the referendum. Let me remind One Nation what the question was. It was:

A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Do you approve this proposed alteration?

Let me remind the Senate that that was the question to all Australians. There was no question around welcome to country ceremonies. There were no questions, despite what this matter that One Nation has brought forward claims, of division or race. There was no question around sovereignty. I have read to the Senate and reminded the Senate what 17 million Australians went to the polling booths to do. What is happening here today is disgraceful.

Over six million Australians supported the question. It was not enough to get the question over the line in the Constitution. Nine million Australians said no. Look at the difference in that. They spoke about a voice to parliament not being enshrined in the Constitution. That did not diminish the need for Closing the Gap to improve the lives of First Nations people. It did not say: 'Remove the languages, remove the culture and remove the kinship of families in this country—of First Nations people.' It did not ask that of Australians. It's an absolute disgrace from One Nation, but then they do have form, don't they? They bring division, even into this Senate. In 2017, when Senator Hanson walked in here with a burqa, it was an absolute disgrace. They're always bringing in stunts, always wanting—