House debates

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Bills

Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023; Second Reading

6:25 pm

Photo of Phillip ThompsonPhillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The work we do in this place is extremely important. Much of the time legislation is debated and passed which will affect some Australians, not all. A lot of it goes unnoticed by the general public. But every now and then there comes a time when a piece of legislation has the potential to shape the future of our country for generations to come. This is one of those times. The constitutional amendment which we are voting to put to the people in a referendum will have a lasting impact. In my view, it is not something that will impact us for the better. I do not support the Voice. I will not be voting in favour of the Voice. At a time when the government wants to divide us on the basis of race, we must walk together as one.

This is anything but a modest proposal. We don't believe the rhetoric of the Prime Minister, who is looking for a political victory. This political victory would be to the detriment of the very people who the Prime Minister says this will improve the lives of. The Voice will not work. The Voice will create a small group of people based on race who will supposedly represent the views of the entire Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. We need to see real and concrete outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We need local and regional bodies that can feed back to government from the grass roots, because I can tell you a Canberra voice will not know what the people of Palm Island or the people of Townsville want or need. A Canberra voice cannot speak for the hundreds of different—unique—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across our vast land.

My position on the Voice is something I considered from a range of different perspectives. It stems from my close personal connection. My mother-in-law was born on Palm Island. Her parents were part of the stolen generation. My wife is Aboriginal. It stems from a lack of detail about the government's proposed Voice and how it will work. And it's from a real concern that there will not be any concrete action to help address some of the unique challenges of our First Nations population as a result of the Voice. It is extremely personal for me.

As I said, my wife is Aboriginal. My daughters—Astin, who is five, and Emery, who is three—are Aboriginal. I made a promise when they were born that I would do everything I could to create a better future for them. Will the decisions I make today create a better future for my children and other children throughout Townsville, Palm Island and Australia? This is a question I ask myself every day. Will the Voice create a better future for Aboriginal children facing significant challenges right now? Will the Voice put an end to children as young as four smoking marijuana? Will the Voice stop the five-year-old being sexually assaulted by a family member and returned to the perpetrator because the authorities didn't want to remove an Aboriginal child from its Aboriginal family? That child is at risk right now. Will the Voice stop the high incarceration rates? Will the Voice bring us together as a nation? Will the Voice stop domestic violence? My view is that it won't. It will not come close. So I do not support the Voice.

The Aboriginal people in my family and the many I've spoken to in the community and around the country do not support the Voice. In 10 years time, will I be able to look my Aboriginal daughters in the eye and say, 'I bent the knee because of emotional blackmail,' which is what we're seeing from the Albanese government? I cannot, and I won't.

I remember the first time I saw my wife, Jenna. I did not consider her race, her ancestry or her Aboriginality. I simply thought she was the most remarkable woman that I'd ever met. I saw a person who I knew I wanted to walk beside in life, as equals. Together we have built a life and created two beautiful daughters, as equals. We make decisions about our lives together. I'm a proud Australian. My wife is a proud Aboriginal Australian. My children are being raised to be proud Aboriginal Australian women. We are walking proudly towards our future together. And we are saying 'no' to the Voice, so that we can remain as we've always been: equals.

The wording of this proposal that we are putting to the people of Australia is extremely concerning. There are many legitimate questions to be asked. There are procedural questions about the process that has—or, in my view, hasn't—been followed to get us to this point today. Why did the government establish a committee to establish a permanent change to our country's Constitution with only six weeks for submissions, public hearings across the country and a report back to the parliament? There wasn't enough time. There were 270 submissions and a few hearings here and there. The closest hearing to my city, to where I live, in Townsville, was in Cairns. The views of the people of Cairns or Yarrabah are not the views of the people of Townsville or Palm Island or Mackay.

Another question is: why did the government refuse to provide any detail that would explain how the constitutional change will operate? Why must we wait until after the referendum to find out how the Voice will affect our nation? It is never a good thing when the government says to its people: 'Trust us. We're the government.' Other questions which are constantly being put to me, when I meet people at street stalls and events throughout the electorate of Herbert, are: Who will be on the Voice? How will they be appointed? How will their eligibility be determined? Why do we need the Voice when there are members of parliament and senators who are already the voice of the people for all Australians? Why haven't we had the standard opportunity to thrash out these questions at a constitutional convention? Why do we need to put the Voice in the Constitution when it's something that can be implemented by the parliament anyway? If it's about constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, why don't we insert a sentence in the preamble that acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first inhabitants of the land? It's something I believe we all support.

If the Voice has to give advice to both the parliament and the executive government, how will anything ever be done in a streamlined way? The executive government and ministers make dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions a day. Does the Voice need to be consulted on every one of them? And, given that the Voice will be in the Constitution, how can we be assured that we will not end up in a position where the High Court is constantly deciding whether the Voice has been properly consulted on issues? What safeguards will there be put in place against High Court activism? Just how powerful could this Voice be, when the Prime Minister himself has said that it would be a very brave government that didn't accept its advice? As one commentator said, the Voice will create constant opportunities for a tiny minority of actors to hold the parliament and executive government to ransom by using the immense leverage and opportunities for lawfare carefully woven into the Albanese amendment. It is no exaggeration to say that it will cause the end of parliamentary democracy as we know it.

These are all valid, legitimate questions, which the Prime Minister and the government have, arrogantly, refused to answer or even vaguely address. They are answers the people of Australia deserve before being sent to the ballot box.

At the centre of this debate are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We need to remember to ask ourselves: why are we having this debate in the first place? There are many reasons, but I believe the reason we have to hold first and foremost in our minds is that we need to be doing better when it comes to addressing the systematic social and societal issues that our First Nations people are experiencing. It's the concrete outcomes that we need to be seeing on the ground in the community. I mentioned before the little Aboriginal boy smoking marijuana and the sexual assault victim being returned to the perpetrator. As I said before, a Canberra voice of 20-odd people—or whatever it may be; we haven't been told—will not know the solutions to these problems.

We must deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We need a sensible, considered approach, not a risky or divisive one. That's why we must have local bodies that are at the coalface, which can feed up through the chain to the decision-makers in a structured and considered way, focused on real solutions. A grassroots model will prioritise local and regional bodies and be focused on delivering practical outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in accordance with the framework provided by the Calma-Langton final report. This would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians' insights, life experiences and moral authority moving up to Canberra, rather than down from it. If you can't get local governance right, you definitely won't get national governance correct.

In government we allocated $31.8 million to support the first year of required work to design the local and regional structures, and we stand by this commitment. Our approach ensures that local and regional voices are heard and that these bodies deliver real and tangible improvements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including making women and children safer and improving education and health outcomes. The problem is we don't know what the government intends to do with the Voice. The Prime Minister hasn't said which parts of the Calma-Langton report he agrees with or will support.

We all want a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, a better future for all Australians. We want to walk together as equals and want a better future for our children. A voice to parliament says this will never occur. If it is in our Constitution, it cannot be removed.

In conclusion, we as a nation need to be extremely careful here about what it is we are trying to achieve. We must not be held to ransom by a government that is wanting to emotionally blackmail the Australian people. Ultimately this referendum will go ahead and it is Australians who will have their say, as is their democratic right. My message to them is: 'Know your facts. Do your research. Make sure you don't take everything on face value.'

As the federal member for Herbert I believe it is my role to outline my position to the community, which is why stand in this place today. I cannot support this constitutional change which divides Australians on the basis of race. I encourage Australians to think very carefully about their own decision. We must walk together as one.

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