It is fantastic to follow both the Minister and shadow Minister on this important topic today. I make a contribution on a matter of critical importance to New South Wales and Australia, the Voice to Parliament. The Voice to Parliament referendum, which we need to spend some time explaining amongst our communities, will be held later this year. It will be a vote for a change in our Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia and to provide a structural mechanism through which they can have a voice, quite literally, and be heard by the Australian Government and people.

I personally support the Voice to Parliament, and I support a change to our nation's Constitution. It is important to note for the record that for far too long Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been excluded from decisions that directly affect them, their families, their communities and their futures. The Voice to Parliament is an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a say in those decisions. As part of my contribution, I will provide a couple of quotes for the record. Marcia Langton said:

The politicians who know and understand the Indigenous residents of their electorates know that the voice makes sense and that it is the singular fix to decades of appalling Indigenous policy and appalling government inaction that has, by and large, worsened the outcomes for our people.

Professor Marcia Langton is one of the most experienced members of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament working group, and I find her voice central to my understanding. Following the Uluru Convention in 2017, Thomas Mayor carried the sacred canvas of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and embarked on an 18-month journey around the country to build support for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice and a Makarrata Commission for truth telling and treaties. Thomas Mayor said:

I transferred that advocacy for my own people and it helped me to see this great deficiency in our advocacy was that we have been purposely divided and lacking a structure from which to practice unity … My inspiration in supporting the Uluru Statement and referendum, is the knowledge of the history of First Nations struggle and the history of representative bodies that have been silenced, and statements and petitions that have been ignored. If you understand structure and unity, you see the importance for us to seek a constitutionally enshrined voice.

Thomas Mayor is the author ofFinding the Heart of the Nation: The Journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth. I encourage everyone to read that and to encourage others to do so as well. I honour and pay my respects to those two incredible humans, Marcia Langton and Thomas Mayor, whose voices have already made changes for a better Australia.

The NSW Labor Government is in full support of a Voice in our nation's Constitution. We now need political leaders and representatives from all sides of politics to come together with their communities and support the Voice. Only through the Voice to Parliament and the implementation of the Uluru Statement in full can we have a fairer, more just future for all Australians. I thank my colleague the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty for bringing this important public interest debate to the House. It is a respectful debate and it is important to have this conversation. I am sure many members, like me, still have a number of people in our communities who do not quite understand all of those points of concern and confusion. Respectfully sharing those voices amongst us will work towards the change we need. I commend the motion.