Page 3720 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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(l) that supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the First Nations Voice to Parliament further strengthens our commitment to our First Nations community and provides a public statement that supports constitutional change which is the responsibility of the Australian Government; and
(m) the need for constitutional change that goes beyond the symbolic and gives breath to the benefits that a treaty offers all Australians;
(2) calls on all Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly to:
(a) acknowledge the notions of Voice, Treaty, Truth as outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart; and
(b) endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, including support for the First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum campaign; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) explore:
(i) the potential to work with and support local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups in initiatives around the Uluru Statement from the Heart; and
(ii) options to build grassroots momentum for the Uluru Statement from the Heart; and
(b) support and advocate alongside the Federal Government to support the First Nations Voice referendum.
I would like to start this speech by reading some words of local Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan:
My community and First Nations people across Australia have been fighting our whole lives for the recognition and respect of the spiritual and physical relationship between our people and land we stand on. Enshrining a First Nations Voice in the Constitution and coming together for truth-telling is vitally important to empower my people and return the power over our own destiny that we lost with colonisation. To achieve this important goal, we need to walk together towards a future that empowers the voices of our First Nations community and comes together over the truth of our history.
Firstly, today I would like to acknowledge that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the traditional owners of this country. I pay my respect to their ongoing spiritual and cultural connections and honour their custodianship and care for our country. I would also like to acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the room today and extend my respect to them. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Here in Australia statistics are published in regard to First Nations people and communities that paint a picture of disadvantage, systemic and institutional discrimination, and the intergenerational impacts of colonisation and historical injustice.
The latest data in the Closing the Gap repository, last updated in June, continues to highlight significant discrepancies between white Australians and First Nations peoples, particularly in the areas of life expectancy, childhood mortality,
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