The year 2023 will be a big year for our country. It will be the first time in 24 years that we will hold a referendum, and I’m confident that it will be the first time in 46 years that we have a successful referendum in this country, because what we have before us is an opportunity: an opportunity for our country to move forward, to take the history that we have with us and to turn the page on a brighter future.

Constitutional recognition through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament is about improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It is a simple proposition. It is about giving people a say in the matters that affect them. And it is an opportunity for our community, for our country, to be part of an important change that will make this country stronger together. It will make this a country that fully embraces our past and can move forward together for a brighter future. It is time to do things differently.

In this country, there is a decade life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We know that years and years of government policy has not worked as it should. In many cases, that has been well-intentioned government policy, but it has failed to get the outcomes that it should have. Often it has failed because people and communities have not been listened to; their voices have not been heard. We do need people in communities to be listened to on the policies that affect them. It is quite a simple proposition. What we get from that is better outcomes, and the Voice is part of the efforts that we will all take to move towards that. At its heart, the Voice is a simple proposition. It will be an advisory body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who represent their communities. They will give advice to government on issues that affect them and their communities. The Voice will not have a veto power; it will be an advisory group. It will deliver practical change on the ground in areas like health, education and housing, allowing government to shape those policies, but it will not be responsible for delivering those sorts of programs. The Voice is the best chance we have had in this country to address the injustices of the past and to create a change that will deliver a better future.

This comes in a context where we know there is a lot of work to be done to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There are areas where we have encouraging progress—areas like babies now being born with a healthier birth weight, and the number of children enrolled in preschool. Those are big achievements, but it’s not enough. We have a disappointing lack of progress in other areas, including in out-of-home care and in adults in prison. So it is clear that something needs to change. We can’t expect things to change if we just keep doing them the same old way.

We do know that local communities know the solutions to local problems, and that is one of the reasons the Voice to Parliament is so important, and it is one of the reasons why it is important that we hear the voice of local communities in the work that is underway to close the gap. And here I do want to acknowledge the work of Pat Turner AM and the Coalition of Peaks for all that they are already doing to elevate the voices of 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled peak and member organisations across Australia. That is such important input that they are providing to that work.

I also want to acknowledge that this month we mark 15 years since the Rudd government made the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. That was a unifying moment for our country. It was a chance to say sorry, to reflect on the pain and the injustice inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and to resolve that the injustices of the past must never happen again.

We have the opportunity for another unifying moment this year. We have the opportunity to deliver not only a new unifying moment for Australia but a critically important reform that gives Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians a say in the matters affecting them, a voice that will help to ensure that better policies are made in this place. I want to thank all those people in my community who have asked me about the Voice, who have told me they are supportive of the Voice, who have told me they want to help work to achieve a voice in this country. It is really heartening to be able to have those conversations in the community, and I know there are many more of them to come, and I know there are many people who want to work with us to make sure that this year we have a successful referendum and we establish a voice to parliament.