05 October 2023

When you are faced with community disadvantage – you do everything in your power to forge a positive outcome.

That’s always been the way in regional Australia – using our tenacity and our creativity to make a lasting impact and to build a better future.

And that’s the mindset we can bring to the Voice to Parliament referendum on October 14.

We only have to look at Australia’s approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy under successive governments to know that more has to be done.

Billions of dollars have been spent – with good intentions, but on approaches that have not delivered the outcomes we so desperately need.

This has meant that very real challenges continue to persist in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Life expectancy eight years shorter than non-Indigenous Australians, worse rates of disease and infant mortality, a suicide rate twice as high, and worse results in education and employment.

Challenges that nobody in regional Australia wants to say are in their backyard.

Challenges that can be addressed if we stop kicking the can down the road, doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome.

The upcoming referendum provides everyone in regional Australia with the opportunity to stop moving the goal posts and to implement a consistent approach that will help Close the Gap.

A vote to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution – paying respect to 65,000 years of culture and tradition.

The way in which they have asked to be recognised is through a Voice.

The Voice is about advice.

It would be a committee of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country who would be chosen by their community to provide advice to Parliament and Government.

Advice on key issues that affect their communities – which would support the Parliament and Government to make better decisions, as they continue to be responsible for all laws, programs and funding.

Listening to the advice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will get better outcomes and improve lives.

So that we can make practical progress in Indigenous health, education, employment and housing – and give people a better life.

So that we can deliver on the idea that came directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2017 after many years of work and countless conversations in every part of the country.

An idea backed by over 80 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

And so that we can save money – by investing in the right programs that get better outcomes and use funding more effectively.

Together we will have a chance to Close the Gap for the benefit of First Nations people.

It is up to all of us on October 14, and I ask you to think about the difference this could make to the lives of First Nations people, by simply writing YES.