Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. How will recognition through a Voice improve outcomes for First Nations Australians, including in the Attorney-General's portfolio?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Petrie—

I don't care what you're doing. Just stop interjecting. The Attorney-General has the call.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calwell for her question. It has been three months since this House passed the Constitution alteration proposal. Its passage through the House and the Senate set in train the referendum process which later this year will allow all Australians to have their say on constitutional recognition of First Nations Australians through a Voice. We are closer than we have ever been to righting a historic wrong—120 years of explicit exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from our founding document, the Constitution—and closer to giving our First Peoples a Voice, a representative committee that will provide advice to the parliament and executive government which does not replace, direct or impede the actions of either.

The current approach is broken and we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fix it, to put the right approach in place, because, when you listen to Indigenous Australians about the laws and the policies that affect their lives, you get better outcomes, and we need better outcomes. Nobody who looks at the closing the gap statistics can argue that we are doing enough to address the disadvantage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly children. As my colleague the Minister for Education has pointed out this week, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to go to jail than to university. This must change. Of course there is already a great deal of work underway to address these issues, including in my portfolio, but the work can only be enhanced by a greater degree of input from all those it is meant to help.

What is there to fear from the simple act of listening to advice? Nothing. The Voice can do no harm, only good. We know that outcomes are better when we partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. As I've said before, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued to the people of Australia, not to government and not to politicians. The Australian people will decide whether to accept its generous invitation to walk together towards a better future. It is a modest ask, but it is an important one. I urge the Australian people to believe that things can be better and to take this chance to make a real and lasting difference.