Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

The Referendum Working Group that the member refers to is a group of Indigenous people both from the Torres Strait and from mainland Australia. They are eminent leaders. It includes Ken Wyatt, the previous Minister for Indigenous Affairs in the last government. It includes people like Noel Pearson. It includes people like Megan Davis. It includes people like Pat Turner. These are serious people, and they have guided the government on the way in which we have conducted ourselves in relation to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice for the parliament. There is also an engagement group and a legal expert group.

We have released a set of design principles that clearly answer the question that you have asked. The design principles are about how the Voice will be made up, how it will be chosen and, most importantly, what its role will be. It will be a body that will provide independent advice to the parliament and the executive on issues that affect First Nations people—things like health, things like housing, things like education. They are the issues that are reported on every year in the Closing the Gap report. That is what the voice will contain itself to. It will not have a veto power and it will not have a funding mechanism. It will not deal with things like parking tickets. It will not involve itself in Anzac Day, as scaremongers have said.

This is a voice that is about improving the practical outcomes for First Nations people, and it is absolutely about recognising the extraordinary history that everyone in this chamber shares, of 65,000 years of story and culture. The Voice will enhance democracy in this country and it will enhance the way in which this parliament operates.

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