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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-17 Daily Xml
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Indigenous Voice in Parliament

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Will the minister inform the council about changing attitudes in the community to implementing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to the Australian federal parliament?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Attorney-General, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his question and his ongoing interest in this area. I am pleased to report that national data collected in the ABC Vote Compass survey shows an increasing willingness and acceptance on the part of the Australian community.

National data in that Vote Compass survey has asked whether Australia should amend its constitution to establish a representative body or a voice to advise parliament on laws and policies affecting Indigenous peoples. Since the last federal election 2019, Vote Compass data has shown support for an Indigenous voice in parliament as growing. Overall, in 2019, 64 per cent of voters supported a push for a referendum ahead of the last election and I am pleased to see that the results of the latest Vote Compass survey ahead of this year's federal election show that 73 per cent now support the move.

There was clear support for the idea. Overall, 73 per cent of Australians agreed 'strongly' or 'somewhat' that there should be a constitutional change to give Indigenous Australians a greater say over their lives. Researchers from the Australian National University have concluded that:

Public attitudes have shifted to such an extent in the last 40 years that there is little reason to think a constitutionally enshrined voice wouldn't pass a referendum if it were held today.

In the Australian election study survey conducted by the Australian National University, around three-quarters of voters were prepared to support a change to the constitution to recognise Indigenous Australians, in both 2016 and 2019. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention that formulated the Uluru Statement from the Heart on 26 May 2017 charted that as one of the tenets of the way forward.

The anniversary of the Uluru Statement from the Heart from 2017 will be the five-year anniversary I think next Thursday on 26 May. The From The Heart leadership has put forward two suggested dates which Australians could be called to decide on a referendum whether to enshrine a voice to parliament in the constitution: 27 May 2023 or 27 January 2024.

A referendum on rights and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is not without precedent in Australia. Many would be aware that on 27 May 1967, Australians voted to change the constitution so that, like all other Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population and the commonwealth government would be able to make laws for them.

A resounding 90.77 per cent of Australians said 'Yes' and every single state and territory had a majority for the 'Yes' vote. It was one of the most successful national campaigns in Australia's history. The Uluru Statement from the Heart has launched a new referendum education campaign, 'History is Calling', rolling out in May and June this year, urging Australians to support a First Nation's voice to parliament. Professor Megan Davis, Balnaves Chair in constitutional law at the University of New South Wales and the Uluru dialogue co-chair, said that:

The History Is Calling campaign reaffirms the opportunity here for all Australians to protect a First Nation's voice to parliament in the Australian Constitution.

Members of the council, history indeed is calling. Labor Senator Pat Dodson has expressed hope that the next government will have a greater opportunity to grasp the mantle to confront Australian history in relation to a voice. I am pleased that an incoming federal government would implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and are committed to a referendum in the first term. I am proud that the sentiments about a commonwealth voice to parliament are so positive.

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