Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the final report on the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I rise to present the final report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This report builds on the work of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition, led by Professor Patrick Dodson and Mr Mark Leibler, which reported to government in January 2012. This report is unanimous and has multipartisan support from Labor, Liberal, National and the Greens members of the joint select committee. Importantly, there is no dissenting report. I congratulate my committee colleagues because this is a testament to their commitment and support for change. I believe that the joint select committee has done an incredible job in achieving unity in a heavily-laden political landscape, so I would like to thank my fellow committee members for their vision.

The committee held 15 public hearings, consulted with constitutional law experts and held community forums. We received 139 submissions. The work of the expert panel was extensive. It conducted 250 consultations in 84 locations across Australia. So, between us, we have done a great body of work on this very important issue. The committee makes 10 recommendations and strongly endorses the position of the expert panel for real and substantive change to the Constitution. We recommend that a referendum be held on the matter of recognising Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander peoples and that it be held at a time when it has the highest chance of success. The report notes the committee's concerns about a referendum happening at the optimum time given Australia's general reluctance to pass referenda. Only eight out of 44 have been successful. So we have a big and serious job ahead of us all to overcome our anxiety and fear on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

To successfully change our Constitution, this referendum must be championed by our nation's leaders, otherwise it will fail. Our national leaders must show courage and leadership and get out there and talk it up—give the nation pride; give the nation some backbone; inspire us. But, equally, every one of us must also show leadership on this issue. It is up to every one of us. To change our Constitution, Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander peoples must be major players in this endeavour. They, too, are critical to its success. The committee recommends a series of conventions be held, consisting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates as well as delegates from the broader Australian community. Changing our Constitution can only be a good thing because there are provisions in it that are just plain wrong. It has racist provisions that reflect an Australia that no longer exists, and this must change.

We recommend that section 25 be repealed. We recommend that section 51(26) be repealed and be replaced with the retention of a person's power so that the Commonwealth government may legislate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as per the 1967 referendum result. The year of 1967 was a high water mark in recognition of the first owners of the land we now know as Australia. Our aim must be to achieve further changes to crown that success of half a century ago. The committee recommends a new section 116A—the prohibition of racial discrimination—that the Commonwealth, a state or a territory shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic or national origin. Let me be clear on this: this is not about a single issue for a bill of rights. The High Court has found implied rights of freedom and of political communication. While we do not have a bill of rights in this country, as this report sets out, we certainly have rights protected expressly by the Constitution of this country: protection of property, freedom of trade and movement, trial by jury, freedom of religion, and the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of state residence. But we would all be lesser Australians if we did not right this wrong and make our Constitution stronger with such a provision.

I do not want to see another Northern Territory intervention, where in 2007 the Australian government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act so that it could enact the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act. Overnight, it ripped away the rights of Aboriginal people and demonised them. These rights have not been restored to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, who are continually treated with contempt. This must change.

The committee heard from multicultural groups who have said, 'What about us? We want to be recognised too.' Changing the Constitution will do this. Section 116A will do this. It will reflect a modern society inclusive of our multicultural country, where discrimination should not be, at any time, accepted or tolerated. This time we must get it right, not just for us right now but for the sake of our future generations. For many of us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give our future generations a strong and proud country—a country that is inclusive of all its citizens.

One of the highlights of my hearings was in the Torres Strait when I asked an elder about the prohibition of racial discrimination. He said to me:

How beautiful is it that we can take the recognition of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and take Australian citizens to a referendum where a vote would be put to the people to eliminate discrimination for all people on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic or national origin.

To build a successful campaign for change, we must continue to engage at the grassroots level. We must engage with the mums and dads and with schools and sporting clubs. We must talk at the social clubs and pubs and at the local church or mosque. We must talk with all Australians, regardless of where they come from: England, China, India, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, Ireland, New Zealand, Yuendumu, Galiwinku, Kalkarindji, Redfern and Fitzroy.

I have had people say to me, 'Why should I? Convince me. Why change the Constitution?' I say to all of you: convince me that this is not the right thing to do; convince me that this will be bad for our great country; convince me that it is okay to have racist provisions in our Constitution which we all uphold as the birth certificate of our nation; convince me that it is okay for Australia's birth certificate to enable successive governments to make oppressive laws that affect only Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander peoples; convince me that it is okay to steal our children and to lock them away from their mothers, their fathers, their clan and their country; convince me that it is okay to be a bigot.

Our Constitution must change, but let's not get caught up in some arbitrary timeline for when the referendum should be held, as this will certainly spell doom for what the joint select committee is recommending and it would lead to failure. Let's make the time to educate and inform all Australians so that they will know that there is nothing to fear from recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, from acknowledging our continuing relationship with our traditional lands and waters and from respecting our continuing cultures, languages and heritage in the Constitution.

The recent survey by Celeste Liddle in The Guardian newspaper's IndigenousX column suggests that there are deep misgivings about the process and content of any proposals. All of these will be exploited by the naysayers of this world, but we must not let them continue to drag our nation down, and that is all that they will do. Prior to the birth of our nation, there were already global citizens who occupied this land we call Australia for thousands of years. Australia has a black history and it is time for us to stand up and say, 'Yes we have, and we should all be proud of it.'

I stand here as a proud Aboriginal woman and I say to everyone: I am not invisible; I am real. Our language, our cultural practices and our beliefs are all real and deserves to be in the Constitution. We need to celebrate and recognise Australia's real and entire history. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people deserve recognition. Like others who have endured and survived extreme racism and oppression in all other parts of the world, we deserve our place in the sun.

As Australia's first peoples, our culture and our heritage has been devalued for 227 years. We have a rightful place in Australia's history. And it is one, as I have already said many times, that all Australians should embrace. This constitutional change will not undo the wrongs of the past but allow Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be respected and valued as citizens in this country—equally. What this change will look like is up to us—you, me, our friends, our family, everyone. But let not the tides of history wash away any real and meaningful change for our people. So, again, I urge you to all inform yourselves and educate yourselves about these issues. Consider them and ask yourself not what you have got to lose; instead, focus on what this country stands to gain—and that is 40,000 years of rich, sustainable, resilient cultures and traditional practices of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. It is time to modernise Australia.

I am proud of what the joint select committee has achieved. I encourage all Australians to read our report, discuss it and debate it, but do not dismiss it. Read the Australian Constitution, and then let us move our country forward together. Once again, I congratulate my colleagues on the joint select committee, in particular our chair, Mr Ken Wyatt, the member for Hasluck. It was an honour and a privilege to be the deputy chair of the committee. I would like to thank the committee's secretariat for all their hard work. I would like to thank all those hardworking people who made submissions to this inquiry and gave us the opportunity to learn more from our fellow Australians. I commend the report to the Senate.