Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice)

I rise tonight to also speak on this utmost significant bill, the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023. I find it challenging on many levels to do so, because there have been very good words and it's been a very good debate, and I am aware that I identify as a European Caucasian male that has never walked in that path. But it's a confronting thing. There were a very good words and some very good things. Some of the things I will say are not what I would like to think of myself at times, but they are authentic, and I will say them.

In my view, this bill is dividing our nation and the best thing for it is it not be put. Whether the polls are right that say it is losing or the polls are right that say it is winning, they are all showing that there is an almost equal divide between the Yes and No camps. Twelve months ago when I came here, starry eyed and full of dreams, this was not where I wanted to be, and I think this bill sums up a lot of things that I think are going on down here.

There was strong support, I think, across the chamber for recognition. I think a recognition bill voted on by 90 per cent plus of Australians would have brought Australia together. I think it was a great opportunity to heal some wounds. If the Voice in itself was something that could fix many problems—all the problems—I think it would be a different conversation. But I think this is another step in not having answers to the many problems.

So we divide Australia. We either enshrine—and let's not say we're racist—some racism in Australia or we build resentment in Australia, and that is not a good thing. As I said, I would like to be better, but sometimes I feel the resentment. I've experienced it in regional towns, when this is the only country that I've ever lived on—the only country I've ever lived in—and up to five times a day I am welcomed to it. There is a saturation level where that becomes problematic for me. I will say that. When I sit in the chamber of the Australian parliament and there are three flags here and only one can ever accept me, that is confronting to me.

But I accept the problems that go on in regional communities. When we went out with the Nationals, we saw some truly horrific conditions and some truly horrific things. There are many problems that rural and remote Aboriginal communities face. It is not just dislocation from culture or a change in their life that has been forced on them but also geographical isolation from hope, and that is as much to blame as anything here. Everything that is said about lower life expectancy is true, and it's true what's said about lower outcomes in life and higher crime. I think I said in one of my first speeches here that, if I were so far from anywhere and I had money, time and nothing else, I certainly wouldn't be where I am today. I doubt I would have stayed out of prison, and I doubt I would have stayed out of pubs—I doubt all these things.

But many of the communities I've spoken to, many of the people I've spoken to, have spoken about this on-the-ground local action, these regional voices and money getting to the places it's needed, not industrial, city based action. If you're in the city, you have these things. You don't have the isolation, you have some opportunity and you have greater diversion and things. All those things exist; in the bush, they don't. We see that, and I want to fix that. I want to fix that for Aboriginal Australians not because they are Aboriginals but because they are Australians.

I will say that this referendum will go down the line of racism or resentment, and we are better than that as Australia, as a Senate and as a parliament. What disappoints me is that there were plenty of opportunities not to get here. There were plenty of opportunities to take everyone on this journey. The Voice could be legislated. I get the fact that it wouldn't be enshrined in the Constitution—I get that and understand that—but it could have been. We could have come together with recognition, and we could have shown that we are a better nation. We could have shown so many things.

But this is my authenticity. We've all heard some great words—they're better than I could deliver—but this is my problem. I will give some words, as I said to many people, next week about my first 12 months here and what I know, what I feel and what I see, and I think our parliament terms are too short. I think that we often take the sugar hit of the short-term fix, of the populistic end of the wedge—of all these things in policy. I've worked in campaigns. It was my job to get people elected, it was my job to bring the governments down and it was my job to put people up. I didn't think it would be my job here to do that, and I think I'm trying to act better than that here. I know I can do those things; I'm just trying not to do that here.

Meredith Paige16 June 2023