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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-17 Daily Xml
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Question Time

First Nations Voice to Parliament

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs about the State Voice to Parliament.

Leave granted.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: After the federal referendum results on Saturday night there have been many commentators suggesting that the point of difference in the referendum debate was not one of goodwill or ill will towards Indigenous Australia but about a fundamental disagreement over the model chosen to achieve a widely desired outcome for Indigenous communities, that is, a raising of remote community Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy, health outcomes, and educational achievements to the Australian average. My questions to the minister are:

1. What evidence does the minister have to demonstrate that the majority of South Australians are aware that a State Voice exists?

2. Does the minister believe that the majority of South Australians support a State Voice to Parliament?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her question. The evidence that exists of support for this was the last state election. This was the very first policy the then Labor opposition announced way back in NAIDOC Week of 2019. And do you know what? The South Australian people voted, as they have in five of the last six elections, for a Labor government who said they were going to implement it, and that's exactly what we are doing. I wish to reiterate that this government—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: —will respect the wishes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in South Australia. This government will respect the aspirations, the legitimate aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this state. I am bitterly disappointed that the referendum on the weekend didn't succeed; however, they are two very separate issues. The referendum at the weekend was about constitutional change. What we are proposing and what will be happening in South Australia—

There being a disturbance in the gallery:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Sit down, Attorney-General. This is the people's chamber and you are very welcome in the gallery, but you will stay silent. I won't tolerate interjections from the gallery.

There being a disturbance in the gallery:

The PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Order! You will remain silent or you will be asked to leave, and I don't want to have to do that. Remain silent. The opposition will listen to the answer in silence. Attorney-General, conclude your answer, please.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Thank you, sir. What will be happening in March of next year is an election for the South Australian First Nations Voice to Parliament. What that will elect will be a series of Local First Nations Voices. This is something even the federal leadership of the Liberal Party has suggested should happen. It is something that they had advocated for. It's a call that we have heeded and that we will be acting on. Elevating the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander South Australians was, up until very recently, a bipartisan endeavour in this state. I will read a quote:

Aboriginal people have long called for their voice to be heard in Parliamentary and Government decision-making processes. Too often, Aboriginal representation, advocacy and influence is absent and decisions are made for Aboriginal people by others.

The Parliament of South Australia wants to ensure that the voice of Aboriginal people is heard by the Parliament and the Government of South Australia. When their voice is heard, Aboriginal self-determination becomes a step closer.

That was said by the then Deputy Premier of the Liberal Party, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, less than two years ago in December 2021.

Less than a year ago, the shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, the member for Heysen, Josh Teague, moved a motion in the other house of this parliament and I will read that motion. The motion moved by the Liberal Party less than a year ago on 16 November 2022 says:

That this house—

(a) encourages all South Australians to recognise our First Nations people as the oldest continuous culture in the world; and

(b) calls on the Malinauskas Labor government to take positive action to establish an Indigenous Voice to the South Australian parliament by continuing the work of the Marshall Liberal government to achieve this historic outcome.

These two things sound very familiar: recognising First Nations people as the oldest living culture on the planet and establishing a Voice to Parliament—two very familiar refrains.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: When we passed this historic legislation—

The Hon. L.A. Henderson interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mrs Henderson!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: I've got to say that this is one Aboriginal voice that won't be silenced today.

There being a disturbance in the gallery:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: When we passed this legislation in this chamber back in March, the Hon. Dennis Hood made some very generous comments that were echoed and reiterated by Josh Teague, the member for Heysen in the other place. He talked about the fact that, although this wasn't the model that they would have chosen—they preferred their Aboriginal Representative Body Bill that the previous government put up—they would support it. This is a quote from Josh Teague:

…I will support it and I will do all I can as one individual member in here and as the member of our party with responsibility for improvement in this portfolio area to do all I can to ensure its success.

'To ensure its success'. We expect and call on the Liberal opposition to stand true to their word: to do all that they can to ensure this success.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: As I have said, I know there are many Aboriginal people who are exceptionally disappointed at the referendum result. More than that, I know many Aboriginal people see this as a personal form of rejection, some sort of repudiation of their culture, identity and their place in this land. I get that, but that's not what this is about. Really, this was the 37th time out of 45 attempts that Australians haven't wanted to change the constitution. We just don't do that very often. We don't do that very often.

It is now incumbent on all those who raised concerns—all of those policymakers who advocated for a no vote, all those who had a mantra of 'practical, positive solutions'—to come forward with those. Now is the time for those who objected to this because they wanted to see other things done, to tell us what those other things are.

One of the things I have seen as a result of this referendum campaign—as difficult as it has been at times—is it has elevated the issues that affect Aboriginal people to a national conversation. It has elevated those issues: the unacceptable levels of disadvantage so many Aboriginal people face on a daily basis and the racism that Aboriginal people face on a daily basis are now part of our national conversation and it is something that won't go away.

The other thing that this has done is that it has galvanised not just the previous generations but a future generation of Aboriginal advocates. Leaders I have known for decades have messaged me, have contacted me over the last couple of days to tell me they still have the fire in their belly. They are keen to keep the cause moving. There are those national figures who have committed their entire lives, in many cases through generations of activism, and who have forged the path for Aboriginal rights in this country, who have been so instrumental in South Australia.

I am thinking of people like Charlie Perkins' daughter Rachel, who has spent so much time here over the last couple of months; Noel Pearson; Megan Davis; Tanya Hosch; and, of course, Linda Burney. There is a new generation of young activists who are emerging. It was a great pleasure to see the development of a number of those through the Yes23 campaign, national spokespeople like Dean Parkin and Jade Ritchie who we will be hearing a whole lot more from in the years ahead.

Respected and emerging leaders in South Australia will continue to carry this torch. There are many, many of them but some of them who have worked so hard and been so prominent over the last few months are people like Sally Scales, Mel Clarke, Dale Agius, Dwayne Coulthard, Ngalangku Tjangu Thomas, Arrin Hazelbane and Jakirah Telfer. These are people who have started a cause that they will continue and we will be hearing much more of them in the future. To conclude, we will be having these elections.

There being a disturbance in the gallery.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Please, the gallery, remain silent.

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