Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

NAIDOC started 60 years ago; it is not a recent thing. The theme for NAIDOC Week this year, which started yesterday, is 'Always Was, Always Will Be'. That was the saying that was born of the civil rights and the land rights movements. The rest of that saying is 'Always was, always will be Aboriginal land'. I want to reiterate what our leader said this morning: Labor's commitment to the Uluru statement—and I hope people upstairs are listening to this—is absolutely rock solid. Our commitment is to a constitutionally enshrined voice to the parliament. Our commitment is to a makarrata commission that will oversee agreement and treaty-making. And our commitment is to a national process of truth-telling. That national process of truth-telling is so important to all of us, and it is an endeavour that every single member of this House should be undertaking and can be involved with. It is about recognising what happened in this country. It is about recognising that Aboriginal people, Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal stories bring an extraordinary gift to all of us who share this land. Let me be very clear: there are 65,000 years of history in this country—just think about that—and we're all custodians of that.

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