Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I just wanted to make my hourly reminder that the Liberal and National parties opposed the Voice before they got any detail, yet here we are at 4 am now, with senators from the Liberal and National parties seeking detail on the Voice when they've already made their mind up. I would have respect for them if they'd reserved their position until they got the answers or didn't get the answers, but they've come into this chamber having made up their mind and having done their press conference many months ago opposing the Voice. Senator McKenzie said she had a respectful heart towards the Voice process, but she had made up her mind too. She stood next to do Mr Littleproud in the press conference when they said they opposed the Voice.

We're politicians. We have political agendas. That's fair enough. We make political judgements. My political judgement is clear, as is my party's: we want to walk along the road of reconciliation until we can get Truth and Treaty in this country. We want to walk on that road. That is the political judgement of our party, as I know it is for the Labor Party.

You know what? We can judge each other. We can judge each other's political parties and each other's political agendas, but I'll tell you who will be the final judge of each and every single one of us in this chamber tonight for this historic debate leading up to the referendum. The final judge of each and every one of us will be history. The final judge will be history, and I do not believe, based on what I've heard here tonight, that history will judge the Liberal and National parties well at all, especially if this referendum fails. You've gone out of your way to divide this country and make this referendum fail so that we can't take up this generous invitation of the Uluru Statement of the Heart for the many in the Aboriginal community and in the white community in this country that want to see reconciliation. If the referendum fails, I genuinely don't know what the pathway forward will be for reconciliation in this country.