2023-06-14
I rise to speak to the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023. This bill seeks to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia and to provide for the establishment of a new constitutional entity called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. This will be put to a referendum of the Australian people.
First, I want to put some facts on the table. Australia is a settler-colonial society built on the dispossession, murder and ongoing abuse of First Nations people. It is built into and ingrained into systems and structures of this country. As a migrant, I have an obligation to break the cycle and build an antiracist society. We stand on ground that belongs to someone else and was taken from them forcefully and violently. I will be voting yes to the Voice, but it should be the start of driving the structural changes and genuine self-determination rightfully demanded by First Nations people, not another unfulfilled promise. The Voice is important, but it is definitely not enough.
I can see why some First Nations people are nervous when they see some of this country's most gruesome groups supporting it—Woodside, Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council of Australia. I understand why people are wondering what the agenda of these big mining corporations is. Their very business model is built on the destruction of Aboriginal heritage, as they dig up climate-destroying fossil fuels as if there is no tomorrow.
Ultimately, here's the thing. First Nations people have been speaking out, resisting and fighting for justice for a very long time, but they have not been listened to. The colonial structures and the systems of discrimination and racism are all stacked against them. So it is time to listen, but, much more importantly, it is time to act. I hope the Voice can be the start of that action.
Many First Nations people—people I deeply respect—have questioned the ability of a representative body that has no teeth to be able to create the big changes needed to make the difference. Will it be another body that will be ignored by the government and paid lip service to? Will it be a body that makes people feel they've done something without actually changing a thing? These are very valid questions.
There are other First Nations people who I have spoken to who have told me the Voice will move us forward as a nation, that it will start to address past and present injustices, that they have been waiting for some positive change for a very long time and that they need this.
The Voice can be the start of change, but the Labor government must show that they are pushing all elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Voice is just one of the three pillars; truth and treaty need to be progressed. The groundwork for treaty needs to be laid right now. I want to see more focus from this government on treaty and truth-telling during this term. These have the most transformative potential to redress the injustices of the past and to build a future where First Nations people have their rights, their self-determination and their sovereignty.
What excuse, really, does the Labor government have for not implementing all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody or the recommendations of the Bringing them home report? There is no reason why all this cannot happen in parallel.
Australia has a colonial past and a bloody, racist history that is tainted with dispossession and violence, but this truth has been stifled for far too long. If we want to heal this country, we need to reckon with the truth about who we are and how we came to be. We do need to reckon with the fact that the race power in the Constitution was very clearly intended to allow the Commonwealth parliament to enact racially discriminatory laws and has its basis in disgusting views of white supremacy. There are no two ways about it. It is undeniably racist. We need to reckon with the fact that among the first pieces of legislation ever introduced to Australia's federal parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act which formed the basis of the White Australia policy. The sentiments of the White Australia policy continue to inform our nation's deplorable treatment of First Nations peoples, refugees and asylum seekers.
Given that sordid history, it is pretty disgraceful that the Liberals, their leadership especially, have been perpetuating this myth that the Voice will create two classes of citizens, with First Nations people being at an advantage. This really makes my blood boil. Look back in history and it's right there in black and white, literally. The two classes of citizens were created when the colonialists forced their way in and ripped land away from the sovereign owners. The two classes of citizens were created when the race power was enacted. The two classes of citizens were there when the White Australia policy was agreed to by the federal parliament. That's what divided this continent, and the Liberals continue on with their dog whistling again and again. They are the ones who want this division to keep going. That's what some of them are best at, appealing to the worst in humanity.
We need to recognise that this violence, oppression and discrimination against First Nations people has never actually ceased. It continues to this day in the settler colonial systems and the structures of our country. The depth and breadth of prejudice against First Nations people is still rooted in law enforcement, in societal attitudes and in institutional systems. It will take significant and ongoing political will and commitment of resources from successive governments to achieve real and lasting change. Truth, Treaty, Voice, have to go hand in hand.
Treaty is a peace agreement. It's how colonial nations like Australia move forward. Shamefully, though, Australia is one of the only Commonwealth countries without a treaty with First Nations people. Treaty was promised by Bob Hawke's Labor government in the eighties, and yet First Nations people are still waiting and fighting for treaty.
There is broad community support and momentum for change; we know that. Labor should use this moment to make a tangible difference in the lives of First Nations people by progressing truth and treaty at a national level, just as Labor governments have already started to do at state and territory levels. Now is the time for federal Labor to show courage, to show leadership and to show ambition. Let's finally remove the shackles of colonialism, move to treaty with First Nations people and cut ties with the monarchy, to become a republic. And let's remember, no matter where we are in this country, we are on stolen land. Sovereignty was never ceded. This is, always was and always will be Aboriginal land.