‘This will change Australia’: Linda Burney says Labor committed to Indigenous Voice

Australia’s incoming Indigenous Affairs Minister hopes the country can have a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament as soon as May next year and says it will be an immediate priority of the Labor government.

Linda Burney, who will be the first Aboriginal woman to be Indigenous affairs minister, said Australia was ready to embrace the constitutional change required to create a First Nations body to advise parliament on Indigenous legislation and policies.

Linda Burney greets Labor Party supporters as they watch the election count on Saturday night.Credit: Janie Barrett

“This is an exercise in nation-building, and this will change Australia. It’s just so exciting,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The country’s first referendum in more than 20 years would be needed to enshrine the Voice in the Constitution, in line with the Uluru Statement from the Heart that was endorsed by more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders five years ago.

First Nations leaders put forward two potential dates for a referendum: either May 27, 2023, which would be the anniversary of the 1967 Indigenous referendum, or January 27, 2024, the day after Australia Day.

When asked whether either of those dates were feasible, Burney said she was hopeful, adding she would soon meet with the group which had suggested the dates.

“The political call will be when we think it’s going to be successful, but those dates are very instructive,” she said.

The first thing Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese did in his acceptance speech on Saturday night was acknowledge Indigenous Australians.

“On behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I commit to the Uluru Statement,” he said.

Earlier in the election campaign, Albanese said he wanted a referendum in Labor’s first term of government, but would not commit to a timeline.

Dean Parkin, director of the From the Heart Campaign, believes Labor can bring the Voice to parliament within the next term of government, but said the country needed a referendum date.

Incoming Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney says Australia is ready for a referendum on a Voice to parliament.Credit: Brook Mitchell

“We need a commitment to a date to set the nation on a path, and we’re certainly looking forward in the first few months of the government to seeing what that date looks like,” Parkin said.

Burney said she was aware it was an ambitious timetable which would require widespread consultation with First Nations people but she would move ahead regardless of the position of the new Liberal opposition.

“Our goal is to get a referendum up in the first term,” she said. “We want to try and achieve bipartisanship but if that’s not possible, we will not wait.”

Burney said many crossbenchers had already indicated they would support the Voice, and she believed the country is ready.

“It’s daunting, but I know that Australians are up to the task and I know my party is 100 per cent behind this,” she said.

“And I think the ‘yes’ case would be enormous.”

Burney said the numerous inquiries, reports and research already undertaken would be taken on board.

Parkin said the extensive work already done on the issue meant a referendum as soon as May next year was feasible.

“I don’t think there’s been an issue that’s received this level of examination in the last decade and a half,” he said.

“People are ready for it. They’re ready to finally deal with this issue of a referendum on recognition and a referendum on a Voice. And once this is locked in, you’re going to see a groundswell of support from across the nation,” he said.