Time has come for action on voice: Burney

Maeve Bannister | December 28, 2022

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has delivered a stirring call to action for all Australians to write a new chapter in the nation’s history by supporting the upcoming referendum on a voice to parliament. 

Ms Burney gave a speech to the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, where she cemented her confidence Australians would vote in support of the voice.

The minister said she was often asked if she was scared the referendum would fail, but revealed that continuing with the status quo scared her more.

“If we do not try, then we have already lost. If we do not try, then we might never have a possibility of bringing this nation together, united like never before,” she said.

Ms Burney said Australians looked back with pride on the 1967 referendum.

More than 90 per cent of people voted in favour of allowing the Commonwealth to make laws for First Nations people and include them in the census.

“In 2023, I know this country is up for it,” she said.

The minister rubbished criticism voters did not have any details about the voice to parliament.

She said the voice would provide independent advice to parliament and government on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

“It will not administer programs or be able to block or veto other legislation,” she said.

Ms Burney said no other public policy question in Australia had been subject to as much inquiry, research, public consultation and report writing as the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.

“We have an opportunity to unite Australia, to make peace with our past, to create practical change that will improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians,” she said.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson said Australia had lacked the political leadership to address the issue of constitutional recognition, but now had it in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Speaking in Woodford, he called on non-Indigenous Australians to support the referendum.

“You are 97 per cent of the voters, it falls to you and your people to open the door for constitution recognition,” he said.

“We speak for 3 per cent of the country, we need you to own the responsibility for the success of this referendum.”

Mr Pearson said Queenslanders had a special responsibility as the home of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“We (Indigenous) are amongst all of the ethnic groups in Australia, the most unloved,” he said.

“We had the fewest friends, we have been in the doorways and dining rooms of very few Australian households, very few can say they had us at their dinner table.

“Yet my belief is that we can do this, Australians can imagine a future filled with love.”

Mr Albanese said Australians will have gone to the polls to vote on the voice by the end of 2023.

He said a voice would achieve two things: recognise First Nations people in Australia’s constitution and ensure they are consulted on matters that directly affect them. 

“It will be when we join with our continent’s mosaic of ancient nations that our modern nation will find its greatest strength, achieve its fullest potential and realise its truest self,” he said in a speech to the festival.

Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser accused the prime minister of using his speech to grandstand.

Mr Leeser said as a supporter of the voice, he was “appalled by the prime minister’s refusal to engage in meaningful consultation and collaboration”.

“Australians still do not have details on how the voice will work,” he said. 

He said not revealing more detail would turbo-charge the no campaign. 

“By not engaging in the serious work of design and consultation, the prime minister is turning a possible moment of national unity into a campaign setting Australian against Australian.”