Closing the Gap: Government back tracks on pledge on First Nations voice

Excerpt from Linda Burney’s address to the House of Representatives - Monday, 9 August 2021

The Government’s refusal on First Nations voice

Last week we also saw the Prime Minister rule out a First Nations voice to the parliament before the next election. One of the desires expressed by First Nations people through the Uluru statement was a greater say in decisions, policies and laws that affect us—a generous and reasonable ask from a people who have survived centuries of dispossession, massacres and the destruction of families and communities—a new iteration of self-determination, not binding and certainly not a third chamber, but safe and secure from the whims of political interference from the government of the day through constitutional enshrinement. The Australian government asked First Peoples for their vision of constitutional recognition and reform, and this is it.