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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-28 Daily Xml
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First Nations Voice To Parliament

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (14:59): Supplementary: if the referendum fails, will the government continue to pursue its election commitments around Voice, Treaty, Truth and, if so, how?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:59): Regardless of what happens with the vote on October 14, we will be keeping our election commitment to implement the Uluru Statement. I can go and repeat every word I have just said, but it is something we believe is fundamentally good for this state. It is something we believe will be fundamentally good for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in South Australia: to have an advisory committee to be able to tell parliament and government more about the decisions that affect Aboriginal people's lives.

As we have canvassed this week, it is somewhat surprising that this has become a political issue in South Australia. We saw the last government under the then Premier, the member for Dunstan, Steven Marshall, put legislation before this very parliament, twice, to create an Aboriginal representative body. Some of the shortcomings of that particular model have been canvassed in various contributions this week, but it was the policy only a couple of short years ago of the South Australian Liberal Party to let Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in South Australia have more of a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

We know the Liberal Party in this state has taken a massive turn to the right and that's hardly surprising when the member for Barker, Tony Pasin, now controls the agenda of the South Australian Liberal Party. No, we will keep our election commitment. We will give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander South Australians more of a say in the decisions that affect their lives. On March 16 next year, there will be elections for a First Nations Voice in this state.

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