Key PointsAnthony Albanese was speaking on the final day of Labor’s 2023 national conference.He said there would be no losers by enshrining a consultative body in the constitution.The three-day event wrapped up in Brisbane.
Labor’s leadership has delivered impassioned pleas to party faithful to get out and campaign for a successful referendum on the Voice with a simple message: It’s time.
Leaning on the slogan of Labor giant Gough Whitlam, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney issued a call to arms for rank-and-file members to get out into the community and campaign for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Linda Burney called on Labor faithful to support the Voice. Source: AAP / Jono Searle
“To borrow a phrase from a former Labor prime minister: It’s time,” she told the party’s national conference in Brisbane on Saturday to raucous applause.
In her native Wiradjuri language, she ended with: “Let’s get this done together”.
Pointing to the aftermath of the 1967 referendum, Mabo, native title and the apology to the stolen generations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there would be no losers by enshrining a consultative body in the constitution.
“When all this is done, people will look back and ask, why didn’t we do it earlier?” he said.
“I want you to give the answer to every Australian who has looked at the stark realities of Indigenous disadvantage and asked themselves: Well what can I do about it?
“Tap into that abiding instinct for fairness that is so much part of the Australian character.”
Albanese said it was a bold undertaking to try and change the nation “for the better in a way that outlasts all of us”, but there was “no cause more deserving for our support”.
Labor senator Jana Stewart said the Voice and constitutional recognition was about connecting 65,000 years of Indigenous history to modern Australia.
The Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman said it was unacceptable her son had a life expectancy seven years less than his peers.
ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told AAP it wasn’t just frustrating “but actually shocking that the no campaign is advocating ignorance as the right approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs”.
Parts of the No campaign have adopted the slogan: If you don’t know, vote no.
“We’ve had the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elected body say: If you don’t know, ask us,” Stephen-Smith hit back.
Stephen-Smith said even if the referendum just made it over the line, it would still be able to unite the nation with future momentum after giving parliament the authority to legislate a Voice.
Senator Stewart said even 51 per cent was a mandate from the Australian people to the parliament and government “that they expect more for First Nations people in this country”.
The resolution that passed the national conference called on the movement to campaign for constitutional recognition through a Voice “with excitement, hope and determination”.
Delegates also resolved to consider a human rights charter, review disability discrimination laws, increase multicultural representation and oppose gay conversion therapy.
Albanese ended the three-day conference by thanking delegates for their “sense of shared determination”.
“You see people from every part of our movement and every part of our country, talking about the big challenges Australia has to overcome but also the big opportunities we are in a position to seize,” he said in his closing remarks.
“The platform we have built together reflects these ambitions.”
Stay informed on the 2023 Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum from across the SBS Network, including First Nations perspectives through NITV.
Visit the SBS Voice Referendum portal to access articles, videos and podcasts in over 60 languages, or stream the latest news and analysis, docos and entertainment for free, at the Voice Referendum hub on SBS On Demand.
