Garma 2023: Noel Pearson urges Yes vote to fix rheumatic heart disease in Indigenous children
Indigenous children suffering from a preventable heart disease are living ‘with a sword hanging over them’, but the Voice could end their agony says Yes campaigner Noel Pearson.
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Indigenous children suffering from a preventable heart disease are living “with a sword hanging over them”, but a Voice to Parliament could end their agony says prominent Yes campaigner Noel Pearson.
The Cape York leader made a passionate case in favour of the referendum on the second day of Garma Festival at Gulkula, northeast Arnhem Land as he lamented the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote areas.
“I know of too many young people who in the middle of a football game have collapsed with a heart attack,” he said.
“You get a fever as a toddler, as a child, as a young student, and you are condemned for life because your heart is compromised.”
Mr Pearson said the disease, which has largely been eradicated from Australia, was not a topic of discussion in parliament, but “with a Voice that will not happen”.
“That’s why we need a Voice,” he said. “Somebody has got to press the issue of rheumatic heart disease, how can we get a proper policy response, how can we get a proper budget response if nobody is talking about it?”
Mr Pearson said no other public policy issue had taken as a long as the process leading to a Voice, which advocates have been working toward for 15 years.
“It is been a hard road,” he said. “We’ve gone through five governments, and six prime ministers, but we’re on the last stretch.
“Indigenous people can’t languish in an Australia that has the default setting of ‘No’. It’s time for the country to press the switch to yes.”
Mr Pearson said the referendum was “not a federal election campaign between Liberal and Labor”.
“If you’re a Liberal voter there’s no reason why you can’t say Yes to Australia, and if you’re a Labor voter the same applies,” he said. “This is about whether we’re going to achieve a New Australia.”
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney addressed a corporate function at the festival on Saturday night, declaring “the time for politics is over” and urging the community to instead consider the referendum as a chance to improve the lives of some of the nation’s most disadvantaged.
Also at Garma, Anthony Albanese invoked the animals on Australia’s official crest — the emu and the kangaroo — noting neither ever moves backwards.
“They just go forwards,” the Prime Minister said.
“And the referendum is about whether we retreat into ourselves or have the courage to advance forward.”
GARMA DAY 1: INDIGENOUS LEADS PLEAD WITH PM TO STICK WITH VOICE
Nothing will delay the referendum on a Voice to Parliament, Anthony Albanese has declared, as he concedes that although there are “no guarantees of success”, the need to Close the Gap is too urgent to ignore.
With the weight of the looming national vote on his shoulders, the Prime Minister was visibly moved by the cultural displays as he walked the red earth of northeast Arnhem Land alongside Indigenous elders for the first day of the Garma festival at Gove in the Northern Territory on Friday.
He confirmed the date of the referendum would not be announced this weekend, noting Australians were not used to months-long election cycles and would instead prefer to “focus” in on the issue once the vote — widely anticipated to be mid-October — was nearer.
At the official opening ceremony the PM was welcomed by Djunga Djunga Yunupingu, brother to the late Indigenous leader Gallarrwuy Yunupingu who founded the festival in 1999.
Mr Yunupingu thanked Mr Albanese for sticking to his promise to hold a referendum on Indigenous recognition and the Voice, gifting him a spear.
“Take this spear and use it for good things,” he told Mr Albanese.
“Take this spear and stay strong for us.”
In a keynote speech on Saturday, Mr Albanese will reinforce the yes case for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice enshrined in the constitution, and tear into his opponents’ double standards.
As support for the Voice softens in the polls, Mr Albanese will admit there is “no such thing as a foregone conclusion” in any democracy, and success is not guaranteed.
“But that’s not a reason to delay — it’s why we have to hold to the courage of our convictions,” he will say.
Mr Albanese will describe the referendum as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for “real, overdue and much-needed change”.
“We will not deny the urgency of this moment,” he will say.
“We will not kick the can down the road.”
Saving his sharpest attack for opponents of the Voice, Mr Albanese will implore Australians to consider what a No vote means.
“It is more of the same,” he will say.
“Not only rejecting the opportunity to do better, but accepting that what we have is somehow good enough.
“An eight year gap in life expectancy, in the home of the fair go, a suicide rate twice as high … shocking rates of disease, in a nation with some of the world’s best healthcare.”
Mr Albanese will argue the Coalition’s support for a legislated Voice is a contradiction to their recent attacks on the substance of the idea.
“Clearly they acknowledge it is needed – otherwise why legislate it,” he will say.
“The reason Aboriginal and Torres Islander people are seeking recognition … through serious constitutional reform is so that the Voice can’t simply be abolished with the stroke of pen.”
Mr Albanese will say investment aimed at Closing the Gap will actually be “effective” if governments listen to advice from the Voice.
“Because the funding actually gets to the people and communities who need it,” he will say.
“The money is invested in things that work, in creating jobs and building secure homes and backing local schools and keeping people healthy.”
Held in Gulkula 1000km east of Darwin, the festival opened with a memorial to its founder, former Yolngu leader Yunupingu, who died in April aged 74.
Mr Albanese paid tribute to the beloved Indigenous activist and recalled when he was at Garma last year to announce the government would hold a referendum on the Voice, Yunupingu disbelievingly asked him “are you serious?”
The Prime Minister said nearly a year later in his final conversation with Yunupingu shortly before his death around the time the wording of the referendum question was settled, the elder said simply “you spoke truth”.
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