Perth NAIDOC Ball 2023

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.

Celebration of the Crocodile Islands Indigenous Protected Area

The dedication of the Crocodile Islands Maringa Indigenous Protected Area in the Top End has been celebrated with a ceremony in north-east Arnhem Land.

The newly protected area includes 20 islands, covering over 78,000 hectares of land and over 730,000 hectares of sea country.

The islands’ mangroves, mudflats, coastal floodplains, monsoon forests, eucalypt forests, shallow seas and reefs are home to 44 threatened species.

Voice a door to opportunity

The sun made the new students sweat as they arrived at the University of Western Australia at the start of 1957.

The sandstone buildings echoed with enthusiasm.

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 WA.

The first Aboriginal student, attending university just three years after the abolition of discriminatory the native pass system in Perth.

This is our moment

This is our moment

Later this year, you will all be asked a simple question:

Do you support a change to the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?

Yes or No.

122 years after the Australian Constitution was formed.

More than 80 years since William Cooper's petition.

56 years since the 1967 referendum.

35 years since the Barunga Statement.

30 years since Keating's Redfern speech.

16 years since Howard promised a referendum on recognition.

ABC Great Southern, Breakfast

HOST, TIM WONG-SEE: The Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney is traveling around WA in the lead up to the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. Now lots has been said about it. You might be seeing more ads from the Yes and No side in the paper, on TV, on social media, here on the radio. But has it helped you make up your mind on how you’ll vote? Maybe you already know which box you're going to tick come the end of the year? Well, hopefully we can try and answer some of your questions this morning.

Final report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme

Today, Commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC has delivered the Final Report of the Robodebt Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission has found that “Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals. In essence, people were traumatised on the off-chance they might owe money. It was a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms” (page xxix, Overview of Robodebt).