Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the end of August it was an honour to join Michael Long in Narm to kick off the Long Walk. It's 20 years after legend Michael Long first undertook his long walk. This morning I joined Michael Long, our Prime Minister, my good friend and former senator of this place Nova Peris, my Greens colleagues and hundreds of other walkers at the end of their journey and walked up here to Parliament House where we were greeted by the incredible Dr Matilda House and her son Paul. What a beautiful morning it was. It was a morning full of hope, love and the knowledge that together we can achieve better outcomes for First Nations people.

14 October is rapidly approaching. For many of us once we leave this place today it will be boots on the ground to get out and talk to as many people as we can in the next four weeks. Please check that your enrolment is up-to-date, talk to your family and friends, volunteer, phone bank, hand out flyers and get out there to the polling booths. It will take all of us to ensure that we wake up to a 'yes' result on 15 October. No matter what, we need to remember why we are doing this. First Nations people from right across the country have called for truth, treaty and a voice. We are simply listening and trying to action these calls for our communities across Australia. We are doing this for our old people and for our future generations. Please vote yes.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we are at the end of the last sitting week before the Prime Minister's referendum on his Canberra based Voice to Parliament. As you walk around and speak to Australians about the upcoming vote they are still unsure what it's all about. They don't actually understand what is actually being proposed by the Prime Minister or how it will impact our country. Intrinsically I know that Australians want to be fair about this, but they're being forced to make a decision without the necessary details, and that is unfair to Australians. The only certainty that they have about the Prime Minister's Canberra Voice is that it contains serious risk, it's divisive, it's completely uncertain how the High Court will interpret it and, if carried in a referendum, it would be a permanent change to our Constitution.

Despite what Labor seem to believe, Canberra does not know what is best. It's actually those who are on the ground living in rural and regional communities who know what's best. As a senator from regional South Australia I understand firsthand the challenges that are felt differently in the bush. Often those challenges must be addressed with flexible, innovative and unique solutions. The Prime Minister's approach to the Voice risks the needs of rural and regional Australia being completely overlooked. We on this side of the chamber understand that there is a better way—a better way than a top-down, permanently enshrined, elitist Voice based out of Canberra. We believe in the importance of having local and regional voices, bodies embedded in local communities, established at the grassroots.

It's disappointing that Labor has chosen to reject these alternative approaches in favour of a risky, untested body that will be permanently locked into our Constitution. Labor believes that Canberra knows best about what local communities need. The coalition understands that it's local communities that know what's best for them.