Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the House. What role has the House of Representatives played in the process that has led to this year's referendum?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's important to know that the long process of consultation that's led to the referendum later this year started in the House of Representatives and that the House of Representatives, over various prime ministers, has facilitated that process. In 2007, under Prime Minister John Howard, there was a commitment to having some form of constitutional recognition. The decision was made that the question would be put to First Nations communities, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as to what form of recognition in the Constitution would make it meaningful.

In 2012, under Prime Minister Julia Gillard, this House established the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition. Then, in 2013, under Tony Abbott, that committee was re-established. That led, in 2015, to the Kirribilli statement. Ultimately, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reported to the House that he'd established the Referendum Council. That led to the House asking for the consultation to happen, where there were 18 regional dialogues—1,200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives over 18 months being asked to report back, ultimately to this House, on what form of constitutional recognition they would want that would make constitutional recognition meaningful.

Following that dialogue, in May 2017, the House was advised of what had happened at the constitutional convention of 250 representatives, and those were the representatives who gave the Uluru Statement from the Heart. That followed, in 2018, with this House establishing a joint select committee co-chaired by the member for Berowra and Senator Patrick Dodson. Out of that, we ended up with the design principles following the co-design process.

During that whole period, there has at the same time been the annual drumbeat of both good intentions and policy failure when we have heard the Closing the gap report. In all of those reports during that period, we have heard what's on track and what's not. The child literacy and numeracy objective has never been on track. The life expectancy objective has never been on track. We know from local examples that listening works, and we know that this proposal is a request from Indigenous Australians across Australia that was initiated because of decisions made in this House when the question was asked, 'What would you like the form of meaningful constitutional recognition to be?' For those who have previously rejected other ideas as being tokenistic, to now oppose this one because it's meaningful really misses the point. The Uluru Statement from the Heart gives us a way of recognition through Voice to deliver results. It's a gracious statement, and we can be gracious in return. (Time expired)

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

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.