Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023

The earliest photo I have of me in Boorloo, the Perth electorate, is at a rally. Ron and Wendy, my mum and dad, are walking down William Street, marching for Aboriginal land rights. In my dad's arms is a six-month-old baby—me. My mum is pushing the empty pram. 

They're smiling for a staged photo, but the reality of these protests and rallies in 1985 was different. Dad tells me they were yelled at and hateful slurs came from the street to Aboriginal leaders and all who supported them, like my mum and dad. On one occasion mum and dad, with six-month-old me, were spat on—hate in physical form. 

But we know that compassion overcomes hate. I'm a realist. We'll see division, racism and hate in this debate, but time and time again hate loses the policy argument. It has no moral authority, no integrity and no longevity. 

For some Australians it will be confronting to see the racism that so many Aboriginal people have experienced throughout their lifetime. Other Australians will learn for the first time the truth of Australia's treatment of First Nations people. 

Together we can learn and grow. We can choose our future, choose to heal, choose to take responsibility and choose to recognise and consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, because it is the right thing to do. 

My parents were both primary school teachers. They taught me not just to stand up for what is right; they taught me to make what is right a reality. Our home on Hampton Road was opposite Fremantle Prison, which was then a working prison that was disproportionately filled with Aboriginal people. 

Australian prisons are both symbols of justice and symbols of injustice. Fremantle Prison has long since closed and become a World Heritage site, but Indigenous incarceration continues to be an unacceptable national failure. 

As the Uluru Statement from the Heart says: Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. 

They should be our hope for the future. It is this hope for the future that dominated my recent discussion with Dr Robert Isaacs, a great Western Australian Aboriginal leader. He said: 'The government must honour its commitment to the Uluru statement. The Voice will take not only Aboriginal people but the Australian community into the future—a new beginning, a new era for Aboriginal affairs in the community at large, a new direction for future generations of young Aboriginal people.'  

This promise of a new future is why I reject the old-fashioned, out of touch and divisive No campaign.  The No Campaign are running with the same fear and prejudice that has held Australia back too many times.  The arguments in the No pamphlet were written in the 1950’s.  I’ve heard these arguments throughout my lifetime, but they get weaker every year.  

They get weaker as Australians see the positive power of reconciliation.  I would be at Lance Holt Primary School by the time of the Mabo decision.  I would be at Melville Senior High School when both major parties chose to put One Nation last on their How to Vote cards.  I was here working for the Rudd government for the Apology.

And now, today, to vote for Constitutional Recognition.  What is clear over my thirty eight years is that the work of reconciliation is never finished.  And we also never stop learning the history of this country.  And we will all learn more this year. 

Learning is an important part of this debate.  Learning more about the Constitution, its strengths and its omissions, and to learn more from First Nations people.    

In 1983, my dad started teaching at Culunga School – a school for Noongar children in Guildford, just on the border of the Perth electorate.  He describes that experience as the tables turning.  He was learning more from the Noongar children in his class about their culture, than he was teaching them about the curriculum, and learning from the parents too. 

One of the parents at that school in 1983 still carried a pass in her wallet.  Gwen had what was called a “Native Pass”, expired but no less hurtful.  It gave her permission to enter the City of Perth prohibited area.  She told my dad it reminded her of what the 1967 Referendum meant to her family.  And it reminded her of how far we had to go.  

For me in my learning, I learned so much from my primary school teacher, Christine McInnes.  I remember the passion with which Christine bought First Nations culture into the classroom.  A passion admittedly not always shared by restless eight year olds such as myself.  But in the early 1990’s, she was bringing culture and truth telling into the class room.  What was then educational leadership is now commonplace.  To this day, Christine and her family are dear friends of our family.  And in thanking her, I thank all teachers who will deliver our curriculum on reconciliation and First Nations history.  

In particular in this year, I also thank my friend Kevin Rudd for his advice and leadership in reconciliation.  Kevin said in this place on the 15th anniversary of the Apology, quoting Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Reverend Theodore Parker, “the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards justice”.  And then, in less academic terms, he said of constitutional recognition and I quote, “it passes the pub test” because it recognises a historical fact.  

The Uluru Statement is a humble request.  It’s an attempt to unify this nation.  A considered, conservative change to our Constitution from the Heart of Uluru to the Heart of the Australian people.  And this statement must be heard.  Australians – all 17.4 million of them – will show they have listened when they vote yes.  

Changing our Constitution is also an acknowledgement that Australia continues to change.  When our newest Australians become citizens, I encourage them to think in these terms.  Becoming a citizen of a new country doesn’t mean you love your country of birth any less.  Becoming an Australian citizen is like having a second child.  You don’t love the first child any less – instead, your capacity to love simply grows.  

Embracing the Uluru Statement from the Heart does not diminish anyone.  Instead, our heart will grow.  To love more, to love Australia as it is, and to love it more as it can be.  Because only in Australia, only in this ancient land, can you live with the oldest continuing culture on earth.  The Referendum won’t change this fact – it will simply acknowledge it in our founding document.  

This will be a modern Referendum for an ancient culture.  The last Referendum in 1999 – dial up email on a 56kb modem, Hey Hey It’s Saturday was still ruling the airwaves, Ansett was still flying politicians to and from Canberra, the Coalition was given a free vote.  And since then, we have seen John Howard go to the 2007 election supporting Constitutional recognition.  Since then, we have seen Western Australia achieve Constitutional recognition under Colin Barnett’s leadership of the Liberal Party.  Since then, we’ve seen the first Indigenous Australian elected to the House of Representatives and Ken Wyatt in 2010 was able to respond to the Apology on the floor of this Parliament.  

He said, “on behalf of my mother, her siblings and all Indigenous Australians, I as an Aboriginal voice in this chamber say thank you for the Apology delivered in the federal Parliament, and I thank the Honourable Kevin Rudd for honouring his commitment to the Stolen Generation”.

In embracing the Uluru Statement, we honour another commitment.  And since that time, we’ve seen Linda Burney become the first Indigenous woman elected to this House of Representatives.  A remarkable journey, which she noted in her first speech started where “the first decade of my life was spent as a non-citizen”.  

These stories prove that change doesn’t weaken us.  Change makes us stronger.  And this Referendum can bring people together.  Just as we did in 1901 when Australia federated.  But our federation has never been whole.  

While some have sought to divide the federation through succession, others have sought to improve it.  I seek to improve it.  

The Constitution was not perfect when it was agreed in 1900, but it was time to federate.  

The Constitution will not be perfect in 2023 or beyond, but it is time to recognise.  

And then we get to the question of why vote yes.  The most incarcerated people on earth.  Voting yes is a chance to change this.  A Constitution written with the prejudices of 123 years ago – voting yes is a chance to change this.  Closing the Gap targets which are not closing – voting yes is a chance to change this.  

There is no independent and permanent advice to this Parliament from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  Voting yes is a chance to change this.  The Constitution does not reflect the historical truth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ long standing and continuing place in Australia.  Voting yes is a chance to change this.  

The people of Perth elected me knowing that I would support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and that I would vote yes to support Constitutional recognition.  In February this year, I stood in front of 200 of them and promised to make this proposal a reality.  My great friend, Senator Patrick Dodson and I held a forum and it was clear there and everywhere I go in my electorate that this is a debate that my community knows time has come, and there is strong support for Constitutional recognition.  

At the end of event, person after person lined up to thank Senator Dodson – for his time, for his message and for his persistence over decades.  I too thank Senator Dodson and so many like him who have come with all that patience, but all that determination, to bring us to where we are today.  

This is simply to say that I am not just committed to not just campaigning for this, I am committed to making it a reality.  I am committed to Constitutional recognition through a Voice and just like I did as a baby on William Street thirty eight years ago, I will walk through the streets of Perth advocating for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, I will doorknock my electorate and I hope that as the vote is counted on the night of the Referendum, whenever that may be, that I will be able to stand alongside all Australians as we celebrate a new future which we have chosen together, as write the next page in our Constitution.