House debates

Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Bills

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

7:12 pm

Photo of James StevensJames Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the second reading of this very historic opportunity to contribute to a debate around our Constitution and the proposal that this Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 bill will be putting to the Australian people. I note the historical significance of us having a debate around changing our Constitution, because it happens very rarely.

There was a debate that didn't proceed to referendum back in 2012-13, of the Gillespie government, the last time there was a proposition to change the Constitution discussed in this chamber. The last time we passed a bill for a referendum was for the Republic referendum in 1999. Before that you go back, on average, more than a decade between each time proposals come forward. Many speakers have noted that it is very difficult for a referendum to be successful. It has been a rarity, given the number of proposals that have been put forward, for them to be successful. I know other speakers have talked about the mechanism that we have, not only achieving the national vote but the majority of states as well.

This proposition I come to with an interesting point of view. I will be supporting the bill because I do support this question being put to the Australian people and this proposition being resolved, much like the 1999 referendum resolved the question around constitutional monarchy for many decades into the future. I, equally, have already been very clear and public in the fact that I will have a vote like the 17½ million other Australians for this referendum and I will absolutely not be supporting the proposal to change our Constitution as outlined in this bill. But I am very comfortable with the people of this country having their say, and I hope to be a part of the campaign to convince them that this is not a change that is in the best interests of our nation and the good government of this nation.

South Australia was very central to the drafting of our Constitution. Sir John Downer, in particular, was one of the pioneering early drafters of various proposals through the 1890s that culminated in the Australian Constitution, which was adopted both in the United Kingdom parliament and, ultimately, in Western Australia, thankfully. We love having Western Australia in the Commonwealth. Deputy Speaker Goodenough, I know that you're very proud as a Western Australian that the good people of Western Australia are in the Commonwealth and remain in the Commonwealth, as they so should for a long time into the future.

At Federation, something that's not very well understood is that the voting enfranchisement for the first Commonwealth elections was based on people that were on the electoral roll in the various colonies that became the states. In my home state of South Australia, we had Indigenous enfranchisement in South Australia. At the first Commonwealth elections, in the state of South Australia—and only in the state of South Australia—Indigenous South Australians had a vote. At one stage, in the 1890s, South Australia was going to be the only state that enfranchised women to vote at that first Commonwealth election.

Regrettably, it was the case that the South Australian electoral roll became the federal roll. If you were an Indigenous South Australian on the electoral roll at the time of Federation, you stayed on the electoral roll, but Indigenous Australians could not then join the Commonwealth election roll in the early decades of our Commonwealth. That was shameful. I'm very pleased that more than a century since, we have broken down so many elements of inequality around race, gender, religion, age, and all sorts of things, that held back certain Australians in different ways within not just the formal structures of government but also the way in which our society operated in the past. We have spent so much time breaking those divisions down. I feel that we've never been a more united and more equitable nation than we are now in the year 2023. There are no doubt more opportunities to continue to improve the equity of this nation.

I have three serious concerns with the proposition that this bill will put to people to change our Constitution. The first is very much rooted in that sense of equity, and particularly equity of citizenship, in our nation. I have great concern that what we're doing through this proposal is suggesting or creating a different treatment for certain Australians in our Constitution to other Australians. Even though there is great virtue in elements of arguments that people may put as to why certain special treatment should be or is justified, that can always be the beginning of a very dangerous and unforeseen trend and one that had not gone the way some early proponents thought it might when they stepped down this path throughout history. I think equity of citizenship in this nation is vitally important. It was wrong when we had inequality of citizenship. It was wrong when Indigenous Australians weren't entitled to vote in elections. It was wrong when women weren't entitled to vote in elections. It was wrong when Australians, for different reasons, have been discriminated against throughout our history. So, here in 2023, I stand very firmly against that kind of inequity being reintroduced in any way, shape or form, particularly into the Constitution of our nation.

Secondly, I am very sceptical about the benefit of creating a new bureaucracy in Canberra and its likely effectiveness in addressing real and serious issues of Indigenous disadvantage, which are important and should have our focus. I'm not so convinced creating a new bureaucracy in Canberra, with all the various examples that we could call upon as to when more government has been created, particularly centralised here in Canberra, would ever achieve the kind of benefit that some people might claim through this proposition.

I'm desperately concerned, and I think everyone in this House is desperately concerned, about the serious challenges for Indigenous Australians that need our attention—particularly in remote Indigenous communities, where the issues are most acute. I think it is regrettable that, at the moment, the only topic regarding Indigenous assistance, welfare and support from government is whether or not this new bureaucracy should be created in our Constitution, rather than the kinds of discussions we could have right now about, instead of this topic, the ways in which we could do better to provide assistance with the most significant challenges that are facing Indigenous communities. We know what they are. We have the Closing the Gap process and the annual report against those metrics. Some have had better progress than others but we are in no way close to closing the gap. And we are spending an inordinate amount of time on text in our Constitution and a bureaucracy in Canberra, and whatever the costs are around that, which I think is time that could be much better spent talking about serious practical solutions to the challenges in those communities.

My third concern is very much around us, frankly, becoming like the United States of America. It is a country I greatly admire, but one thing I think they get wrong in the United States is that their courts decide things that are in the purview of parliaments and the democratic process. I don't want to see a situation where we change our Constitution and create open lawfare over a whole range of questions, and where we've got no control over whether jurisprudence may head or land on a whole range of things that occur when you dramatically change the Constitution of our nation. The Constitution has supremacy, and the High Court has the ability to interpret that Constitution with no ability for this chamber or this parliament to interfere with or change that interpretation whatsoever.

We have heard through evidence to the committee on this and the public debate that there are many former High Court justices with varied opinions on this, former eminent jurists, and people coming from both sides of the argument around advocacy for this change. But none of them are saying there is no risk as to how the powers of what we are creating might be interpreted by the High Court, and what that could lead to around the way in which our government functions. I love our Westminster system of government. I love the fact that the executive of government comes from the legislature and is accountable to the legislature. Yes, we have an independent judiciary, and they quite rightly adjudicate questions of interpretation of law and, most importantly, in the case of the High Court, the Constitution, the governing document of our nation—which is why changing the Constitution is so significant. In doing it, you don't come back from the consequences of that.

Right now, if people don't like the current government, and their local member of parliament is in that government, they can vote them out at the next election. They can come to see me, as their local member—and we'll all have a great deal of advocacy from our constituents who are for or against this very issue we're debating right now and many other issues that will come into the court of public opinion, into the public domain and into this parliament. And we are accountable to those voters and their views. Every three years—I think we could change that to four at some time—they get to choose whether they're happy with their local member of parliament and the government of their nation. And that accountability is to every Australian who gets a vote in selecting their representatives and the composition of this parliament. We must cherish that and the fact we are such a strong vibrant democracy because of that. I don't want to see a situation where we have that except in a whole range of cases where the High Court has determined that because we've changed our Constitution in a certain way there are now elements of our democracy that are taken away from our democracy and are taken away from this parliament. That is unequivocally the consequence of creating an additional power in the Constitution and creating another body within our governmental framework that has rights and powers that may be determined in whatever way by the High Court into the future. When we find out the answers to all these questions it will be when we've already changed our Constitution permanently.

We've about six months to debate this. It's my understanding from the indications of the government that, once this bill is passed, the referendum question will be put later in the year—around October and November. We are going to have a spirited debate—and that's one of the great things about our democracy. I commend the contribution of my good friend the member for Menzies, who made the most important point in the debate I have listened to so far—without disrespecting the excellent contributions from all members—and that is that we must have civility and respect in this debate. Everyone is contributing to it because they love their country and they care about our future. They have views about what will make this country even better in the future.

A debate about our Constitution couldn't be a more fundamental conversation for lawmakers to have, for civic leaders to have and for every Australian to have. Those conversations will happen over the next six months. At times there will be nasty contributions, and we should call out those nasty contributions. At times people will get personal, and we should not tolerate that. At times wild claims will be made that are not relevant to the debate and are seeking to trick people into believing certain things might occur that might not. It's possible that that will happen on both sides of the argument. There's no question about that. I come at this with a view on what should happen, and I will call out people who seek the same outcome as me if they behave in that way. I hope all members have that same attitude—I'm sure they do.

I will support this bill through the parliament. I'm very comfortable with the people of my electorate having their say on this. I think it is very important. It is something that needs to be resolved by having a referendum. I will support the bill. I will campaign against changing our Constitution in that referendum campaign. I will vote against it, and I will absolutely respect the result of that referendum when the people of this country have the final say. I commend the bill to the House.

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