<!--The Official Report of Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia are covered by parliamentary privilege. Republication by others is not afforded the same protection and may result in exposure to legal liability if the material is defamatory. You may copy and make use of excerpts of proceedings where (1) you attribute the Parliament as the source, (2) you assume the risk of liability if the manner of your use is defamatory, (3) you do not use the material for the purpose of advertising, satire or ridicule, or to misrepresent members of Parliament, and (4) your use of the extracts is fair, accurate and not misleading. Copyright in the Official Report of Parliamentary Debates is held by the Attorney-General of South Australia.-->
<hansard id="" tocId="" xml:lang="EN-AU" schemaVersion="4.0" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="hansard_1_0.xsd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2007/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
  <name>Legislative Council</name>
  <date date="2023-09-14T14:15:00+09:30" />
  <sessionName>Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)</sessionName>
  <parliamentNum>55</parliamentNum>
  <sessionNum>1</sessionNum>
  <parliamentName>Parliament of South Australia</parliamentName>
  <house>Legislative Council</house>
  <venue></venue>
  <reviewStage>published</reviewStage>
  <startPage num="3633" />
  <endPage num="3683" />
  <dateModified time="2023-09-15T15:00:33+09:30" />
  <proceeding>
    <name>Question Time</name>
    <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000018">
      <heading>Question Time</heading>
    </text>
    <subject>
      <name>Federal Voice to Parliament Referendum</name>
      <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000019">
        <heading>Federal Voice to Parliament Referendum</heading>
      </text>
      <talker role="member" id="6706" referenceid="c8683bcbb226495ebf16e224a5e3db3c" kind="question">
        <name>The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Leader of the Opposition</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <questions>
          <question date="2023-09-14T04:45:00+09:30">
            <name>Federal Voice to Parliament Referendum</name>
          </question>
        </questions>
        <startTime time="2023-09-14T14:18:28+09:30" />
        <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000020">
          <timeStamp time="2023-09-14T14:18:28+09:30" />
          <by role="member" id="6706" referenceid="c8683bcbb226495ebf16e224a5e3db3c">The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:18):</by>  I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding comments he made in this chamber on Wednesday 13 September 2023.</text>
        <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000021">Leave granted.</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="6706" referenceid="c8683bcbb226495ebf16e224a5e3db3c" kind="question" continued="true">
        <name>The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Leader of the Opposition</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000022">
          <by role="member" id="6706" referenceid="c8683bcbb226495ebf16e224a5e3db3c">The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI:</by>  On Wednesday 13 September, the Hon. Kyam Maher responded to a question I put to him concerning the federal Voice to Parliament. The honourable member stated that he had spoken to a lot of people in the community who have concerns about the Voice and they are, in the words of the honourable member, well-founded concerns. Based on the Cambridge dictionary, the definition of 'well founded' is anything that is based on facts or good reason. My question to the minister is: on what basis does he believe the reasons for concerns over the Voice are well founded?</text>
      </talker>
      <talker role="member" id="4697" referenceid="c1607c57d2294390bdc2b07c15f35010" kind="answer">
        <name>The Hon. K.J. MAHER</name>
        <house>Legislative Council</house>
        <portfolios>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Minister for Aboriginal Affairs</name>
          </portfolio>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Attorney-General</name>
          </portfolio>
          <portfolio id="">
            <name>Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector</name>
          </portfolio>
        </portfolios>
        <startTime time="2023-09-14T14:19:21+09:30" />
        <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000023">
          <timeStamp time="2023-09-14T14:19:21+09:30" />
          <by role="member" id="4697" referenceid="c1607c57d2294390bdc2b07c15f35010">The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:19):</by>  I don't have the exact words I used yesterday. Depending on the exact words I used, the intention was probably better described as well meaning, so that is how I will describe them today.</text>
        <text id="202309143ec01add3ddd42ffa0000024">People have had, no doubt, well-meaning concerns about the Voice, and on many occasions a lot of them are based on incomplete information. As I said yesterday, in speaking to people, in my experience where it is explained what is proposed with the alteration to the constitution—that is, the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the constitution through a Voice to government and parliament that is an advisory body only—the vast majority of the time those well-meaning concerns are dissipated.</text>
      </talker>
    </subject>
  </proceeding>
</hansard>