Acknowledgements
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation.
I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
Because this always has been, and forever will be, Aboriginal land.
I am honoured to be here on behalf of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
And I am proud that our Government has held firm in our commitment to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.
Ensuring First Nations voices across Australia are heard.
Delivering better policies and improving lives.
I acknowledge:
- Yaz Mubarakai MLA, Parliamentary Secretary to the WA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
- The Chair of the NAIDOC Perth Committee, Aunty Glenda Kickett
- Vice Chair Uncle John Penny
- The rest of the NAIDOC Perth Committee
- Corey Jacobs, event organiser
- All elders and community leaders with us today.
Irwin Lewis
For our elders.
Those that come before us.
Those that inspire us.
In that spirit, I would like to take us back to 1957.
To the start of a new semester at the University of Western Australia.
To a new cohort of enthusiastic students, sweating in the late summer sun.
Undoubtedly the most enthusiastic, and possibly nervous, student walking onto campus that year was Irwin Lewis.
Irwin was the first Aboriginal student to attend university in Western Australia.
Attending university just three years after the abolition of the discriminatory “Native Pass” system in Perth.
From his home in Morawa, to dux at Christchurch Grammar.
Then to the University of Western Australia and winning a WAFL premiership with Claremont in 1964.
And, later, a career as a leading public servant.
Irwin Lewis’ life reminds us that all Australians win when we open the doors of opportunity.
A Voice to Parliament will make that door a bit wider.
Starting early by making a practical difference on things like school attendance.
Expanding opportunity with advice on how we get even more First Nations people into our universities and TAFEs.
More success stories.
And more opportunity.
Ernie Bridge
The history of NAIDOC week takes us back further.
To Melbourne in 1935.
William Cooper forms the Australian Aboriginies League.
Writing to King George the Fifth.
Requesting Aboriginal electorates in the Federal Parliament.
It was 51 years later, here in Western Australia, that we made history.
Ernie Bridge was not only the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person elected to the Western Australian Parliament.
He was Australia’s first Indigenous minister.
Ernie then made more history as the first Indigenous member of an Australian cabinet.
“Politics can be ... tough” was the advice from Sir Charles Court when Ernie accepted preselection in the late seventies.
Ernie later said he had no idea just how tough it would be.
Ernie was a fighter.
For the Kimberley.
For the people of our state.
Ernie’s inspiring efforts — across two decades — helped to make Western Australian politics a more inclusive and representative place.
As one colleague said
“Someone [had] to break the mould. And Ernie broke it."
Yet in breaking the mould, he was still focussed on practical action.
Working to ensure clean drinking water for his community.
A Voice to Parliament will be the same.
Giving practical advice on things like housing and health.
His successors in the seat of Kimberley have been proud First Nations women: Carol Martin, Josie Farrer and Divina D’Anna.
Ernie Bridge opened a door to a new kind of representation.
To a different perspective.
A different voice.
And we are all better for it.
Reconciliation
More recently, we have seen Ken Wyatt and then Linda Burney make history in the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile in the Senate, another great West Australian, Senator Pat Dodson, guides us towards a more reconciled future.
Again, we are all the better for it.
Then in 2015, with nothing to fear, Colin Barnett accepted an amendment to the Western Australian Constitution.
A powerful statement that “the said Parliament seeks to effect a reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of Western Australia”.
The Voice to Parliament
It is this proud history of Western Australia that gives me hope that we will as a state support constitutional recognition.
Because our Constitution is not written in stone, unable to grow as our nation does.
It is written by the vote of the Australian people.
The people of Australia know that our competent government can deliver our commitments.
We can be trusted to deliver Constitutional Recognition.
The vehicle for that recognition is the Voice.
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body, representing First Nations communities across Australia.
It will not have a veto over government.
But it will offer new ways to close the gap.
The idea for a Voice comes from First Nations people themselves.
It represents decades of work towards recognition.
The truth is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians knew it would be difficult.
That is why at Uluru in 2015 they asked the rest of the nation to walk alongside them.
Conclusion
Just like Irwin Lewis knew, just like Ernie Bridge knew, change does not just happen.
It takes hard work.
This week National Campaign Director for Yes23, Dean Parkin, joined myself and 50 volunteers.
He spoke about the six years since the generous invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The decades long movement for First Nations recognition.
Then he said to all of us “you are now part of this movement”.
A movement to open the doors of opportunity by knocking on the doors of Australians.
All Australians have to do is write three letters. Y-E-S.
Thank you, and enjoy your night.