Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start by acknowledging the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which the Australian parliament meets. I'd also like to acknowledge the Yuggera and Turrbal peoples of Meanjin, my home town of Brisbane where I live and work. I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of hundreds of nations around Australia, their elders past and present and their connections to the land, waters and skies. This country was invaded, and the First Peoples were violently dispossessed of their land. The sovereignty of First Nations people was never ceded. Successive governments at federal, state and local levels have perpetrated grave injustices since the initial invasion, and those injustices are ongoing.

The legacy of colonisation lives in the lingering gap between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians, a gap that's laid bare each year in the Closing the Gap report, a gap which is closing far, far too slowly. First Nations people are locked up and thrown in jail at a higher rate than any other group of people in the world. They are more likely to be incarcerated as children, and they are more likely to die in prison. First Nations communities have poorer health outcomes, higher unemployment and are more susceptible to the housing crisis. First Nations children are still being taken from their families. Cultural sites are destroyed for mining projects with barely a slap on the wrist. Consultation with traditional owners over resource projects remains tokenistic and exploitative, and destructive projects like the Adani Carmichael mine, fracking in the Beetaloo basin and highway expansions at Deebing Creek and Djaki Kundu press ahead despite the opposition of those who speak for country, all for the profits of big corporations.

Systemic racism is embedded into the fabric of our laws, social policies, policing and media in this country and impacts every aspect of First Nations people's lives. First Nations communities have said all of this loud and clear for decades, for centuries—frontier resistance, tent embassies, Invasion Day rallies, the Bringing Them Home Committee and countless other advisory bodies. They've used their voice; we just haven't listened. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was an attempt to reckon with our past and to create a better future. It states:

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

What the Uluru statement calls for is bold but ultimately simple: '…to empower our people and to take a rightful place in our own country.' Giving First Nations people, those who have survived, power over their lives so that their children can flourish, their culture can flourish and they can thrive—all this should be non-negotiable.

I am proud to be the Greens spokesperson on women, and in that role I am keenly aware of the injustices that First Nations women face. I want to pay tribute to the First Nations women in this chamber, some of whom are participating in this debate tonight. First Nations women, as I hope we all know, are nearly more than eight times more likely to be killed and 27 times more likely to be hospitalised by domestic and family violence. They are more likely to be misidentified as a perpetrator in a domestic assault. The inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women, initiated by Senator Cox and Senator Thorpe, has revealed the shocking dismissal and underinvestigation of the abuse of First Nations women. I am pleased that the government has finally acknowledged the need for a dedicated First Nations action plan and a national plan to end violence against women developed by and for First Nations women. First Nations women know how to address the cycles of violence they experience and have been calling for action—we just haven't been listening.

That's what is at stake when we are considering the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023. It is an opportunity to start the process of redressing centuries of injustice and to finally start listening to the voices of First Nations people.

Critically, a Voice to Parliament is only one element of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, an invitation to deliver truth-telling, treaty and Voice. As the first party to endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, the Greens support progressing all of these elements. We support a Voice to Parliament, but it's but one of the three elements of the Uluru statement. They are intended as a package, to build the scaffolding for a stronger Australia. A successful Voice referendum later this year could be the start of change for First Nations people as we move towards truth-telling, treaty-making and self-determination. We have an opportunity to change things for the better with First Nations people throughout this nation—not just for First Nations people but for all of us. The Greens know that there will be no justice in this country without truth or treaty. Strong First Nations networks within the Greens, at both a national level and in my home state of Queensland, have made it clear that we must begin to tell the truth about the history of violence and dispossession that lies at the heart of this country. We must negotiate treaties with First Nations people so that we can forge a better shared future.

The Greens are committed to working with the government to advance First Nations justice while listening to the concerns of First Nations people. We've called for progress of all of truth, treaty and Voice, but the government has chosen to proceed with Voice first. In that context, we want the Voice referendum to succeed, to lay the foundation for progress on each element of the Uluru statement. We want and we see Voice as the pathway to truth and treaty. The government must not take its eye off the whole package. Since the welcome commitment of $5.8 million to a makarrata commission in the October budget, there hasn't been real progress on truth-telling or treaty-making. With a successful Voice referendum, the pressure to act on that commitment must grow.

Truth, treaty and Voice offer a historic opportunity to move towards First Nations justice and healing, to create a better Australia. So I am disappointed, but sadly not surprised, to see many parts of the coalition and others in this place seeking to derail the Voice referendum. They do that knowing full well that they're standing against advancing First Nations justice, they're standing against recognising and respecting the First Peoples of this nation and their culture. Rather than the path of listening, hearing and learning, they resort to the tired old path of racist rhetoric and dog whistling that has stood in the way of justice for so long. They're playing to fear and division and outdated conservative notions, appealing to those who have benefited from the colonial legacy and who see justice and equality as a threat. Thankfully the rest of the world has moved on. This country has moved on. We are ready to listen and to respect and to grow together. Unlike those in the opposition and One Nation, whose only trick is division, the community sees an enshrined Voice to Parliament for the opportunity that it is. Will the Voice alone fix a history of dispossession? Will it immediately lower the rates of violence or get kids out of prison? No, not on its own, but a successful 'yes' vote will show that we are capable of moving forward with purpose. And the Voice will inform the decisions that come next. It will ready us for truth-telling and treaty-making, to finally have the hard conversations that need to be had and to actually act in response, to implement the recommendations of the black deaths in custody report and the Bringing them home report and to actually close the gap, on all metrics.

As the Greens spokesperson on democracy, I also want to take the opportunity to say that this referendum is itself an opportunity to improve enfranchisement, particularly for First Nations communities. This opportunity should not be squandered, and I once again call on the government to introduce on-the-day enrolment, to remove restrictions on voting for prisoners, to increase remote polling programs and to allow phone voting for those in remote communities, to maximise the number of people who can have a say on this nation-building reform.

Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank the elders and custodians who have spoken to me about Voice. I thank the Australian Greens and Queensland Greens First Nations networks, whose representatives have met with me over the past year to discuss the risks and rewards of the Voice and their dedication to truth and treaty. I deeply respect your views and I hope that we can continue to work together in this ongoing fight for First Nations justice. We have much work to do in this country. Let's make sure the Voice is the pathway to truth and treaty, and let's move forward with hope in our hearts for genuine reconciliation and healing together.