Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. After your attendance at the Garma festival on Saturday, what is the government doing to bring Australians together to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice in our Constitution?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macnamara for his question and for his interest in advancing the cause of justice for First Nations people in Australia. It was indeed an honour to attend the Garma festival, to meet with elders and to listen to their concerns. It was an honour to go with so many of my parliamentary colleagues, including the Minister for Indigenous Australians; the Attorney-General; the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator McCarthy; of course Senator Patrick Dodson, the father of reconciliation in this country; the member for Berowra, the shadow minister, who travelled up with us on Friday—I thank you for your attendance; and the local members, the member for Lingiari and the member for Solomon.

It has been five years since people gathered at Uluru and came out with the gracious Statement from the Heart, a generous offer of reconciliation. As the Uluru statement concluded:

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

Five years on, it's time that we all walk the walk with Indigenous Australians. I believe that Australia can rise to this moment and advance reconciliation by recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our birth certificate, our Constitution. It's not a matter of special treatment. It's not a matter of preferential power. It's about consulting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on decisions that affect them.

In the draft of the constitutional change that I spoke about on Saturday, it makes it very clear—the primacy of the parliament is not affected. It is also the case that it's not a matter of a voice or practical measures to close the gap; it's a matter of a voice being a vehicle to advance practical measures to close the gap. We know that, when a government listens to people with experience, with earned knowledge in culture and community, the policies and programs are always more effective, whether they be justice reinvestment programs or programs for Indigenous rangers. Where you consult people and give them that sense of ownership, you get better practical outcomes. The voice can empower communities, create opportunity, deliver justice and give security. This is an opportunity to uplift our entire nation. We need to seize that opportunity.