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Submission Number
2711
Participant
Cassandra Goldie
Submission date
Main Submission File
View main submission attachment by Cassandra Goldie1.46 MB
Main Submission Automated Transcript

Personal Submission to the Indigenous Voice co-design Process

Friday 3Q1h April 2021

Bondi Junction NSW 2022

Dear Inquiry

I write to support the Uluru Statement from the Heart and in particular the call from
First Nations peoples for a constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament.

I was born on Noongar country of Irish heritage. Later, as an adult, I spent five years
living on Larrakia country and now live on Gadigal land . I pay respects and thanks to
First Nations Elders past and present. I express my deep gratitude to First Nations
Elders, Traditional Owners and peoples who have taught me much about the great
cultural custodianship of First Nations peoples with their rich cultural leadership of
which I have been a beneficiary. I also express profound sorrow for the brutal and
violent history of colonisation and dispossession, the terrible legacies of these
atrocities and the ongoing racism and multiple human rights violations experienced
by First Nations peoples in Australia over generations and today.

I am currently the CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service and Adjunct
Professor at UNSW Sydney. I was previously Director at the Australian Human
Rights Commission and also Director of the Darwin Community Legal Service. In
these capacities, I have had the privilege of meeting many First Nations leaders and
draw great insights and wisdom from their advocacy and actions.

I have come to know deep in my heart that as a person, community and country, we
cannot be at peace until we support and deliver true self-determination rights to First
Nations peoples. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was a generous gift of
extraordinary national leadership from First Nations elders and communities to us all.
It shows us the way forward to deliver on basic human rights and justice for First
Nations peoples, and a better future for us all, including future generations.

So I urge this Inquiry to do justice to First Nations leadership, and to respect
community voices such as mine urging action to deliver on the Uluru Statement from
the Heart.

Specifically I call on the Australian Government to support First Nations peoples'
Uluru Statement from the Heart and as a national priority act to:
Recommendation 1
Honour the Australian Government's 2019 election commitment to a referendum
once a model for the Voice has been settled.
Recommendation 2
Pass enabling legislation for the Voice after a referendum has been held in the next
term of Parliament.
Recommendation 3
Ensure that the membership model for the National Voice gives previously unheard
First Nations people the same chance of being selected as established leadership
figure.

I urge you to support this call for self-determination and justice for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples.