Page 3719 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders—Uluru Statement from the Heart
DR PATERSON (Murrumbidgee) (4.07): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are the Traditional Owners of this country, and the ACT Government pays respect to their ongoing spiritual and cultural connections with it;
(b) that the latest data available in the Closing the Gap Information Repository (updated 2022) continues to highlight significant discrepancies between white Australians and our First Nations people, particularly in the target areas of life expectancy, childhood mortality, school attainment and employment. More work is required to close the gap in such discrepancies that continue to cause serious harm to our First Nations community;
(c) the work of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Elected Body in the ACT as the representative body established to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT to have a strong democratically elected voice in our region. They are also the ACT jurisdictional member on the Joint Council on Closing the Gap;
(d) the ongoing commitment to the ACT Whole of Government Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement;
(e) that the Uluru Statement from the Heart was developed in May 2017 and made 50 years after the 1967 National Referendum confirming that First Nations people must be counted as part of our national census. The Statement was made in Mutitjulu in the shadow of Uluru on the lands of the Anangu people when 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates from 13 regional areas put their signatures on a historic statement;
(f) that the Uluru Statement from the Heart, addressed to the Australian people, invited the nation to create a better future via the proposal of key reforms, asking for constitutional change and structural reform in their relationship with Australia;
(g) that the statement calls for a First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement making between Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
(h) that the Makarrata Commission will also oversee a process of treaty-making, and truth-telling about Australia’s history and colonisation;
(i) that Makarrata, as outlined in the Uluru Statement, is a Yolgnu word for coming together after a struggle and the Commission would lead an important process of truth-telling about our history;
(j) that there will be a referendum for a First Nations Voice to Parliament between July 2023 and July 2024;
(k) that the First Nations Voice to Parliament would recognise the status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia and enshrine a First Nations Voice to Parliament in the Australian Constitution;
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