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

On 30 September, Pat Turner, the chair of Coalition of Peaks, made an impassioned plea to the Press Club. She's also a member of the government's advisory committee on a voice to the parliament. She spoke at the 'Australia and the world' annual lecture. She said that, on a voice to parliament, the government is:

… high on rhetoric and well-rehearsed: co-design, empowerment, doing things with us, rather than to us. But if we look closely, the practice continues to be poles apart.

She also said:

A compelling case for shifting away from a Voice to Parliament to a Voice to government has not been made.

And that's precisely what this government has done. It has moved away from a voice to parliament to a voice to government, and that is not what the Uluru statement says. Labor has never wavered from its commitment to the Uluru statement. It's clear long term that it is about a voice to the parliament, constitutionally enshrined; it is about truth telling; and it is about the establishment of a Makarrata commission to negotiate agreements and treaties. That has never changed for the Labor Party. But it has changed for the Liberal Party. The advisory committees have been expressly told that they are not to deal with the Uluru statement. It is an absolute outrage. And we want to hear from the government what their commitment is. The real test for the Prime Minister in Closing the Gap changes will come in tonight's budget— (Time expired)