Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to dedicate this first two-minute statement to my new seat partner, a fantastic Indigenous woman, Jana Stewart. I want to make a contribution about the importance of the Uluru statement, the Statement from the Heart, and why now, more than ever, we need to implement it in full, and in this term of parliament: voice, treaty, truth.

Reconciliation with our First Nation brothers and sisters is a top priority for this, the Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Albanese. It is rightly so that we focus on this. The statement is a roadmap to equality; to celebration of First Nations culture; to telling the truth about our history—our shared history; and to ensuring that voices are enabled at the highest levels of government. Closing the Gap we have talked about for a long time, but it comes only with genuine empowerment and authentic recognition. Without real, meaningful change we risk condemning generations of Indigenous youth to a future without recognition and without hope.

We should not try to tinker with this profound statement, as some in this place have recklessly proposed. We should not ignore the statement either, as has been the political decision of others in this place. The sacred links to this land between our First Nations people have not disappeared in so short a span as that which has taken place since British settlement. I sat beside Senator Nova Peris—I signed the book in this place immediately after her—and I sit proudly here with Senator Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and Senator Jana Stewart. (Time expired)