Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au

Aaron Bunch
Focus on Indigenous health after PM speech

The Garma Festival in Arnhem Land continues with forums on key policy issues for Indigenous people on Sunday.

July 31, 2022

The high rates of illness in Aboriginal communities will be among the issues raised at the Garma Festival a day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a key speech at the event.

The four-day festival at Gulka, a significant ceremonial site overlooking the ocean in northeast Arnhem Land, continues on Sunday with a forum on economic health in remote Australia.

It will come after Mr Albanese revealed plans for a historic referendum on the introduction of an Indigenous Voice to parliament in front of a thousand-strong audience on Saturday.

He revealed a referendum question that could be put to Australians: Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?

“A straightforward proposition. A question from the heart,” he said.

His speech also recommended adding three sentences to the constitution to establish the Voice.

“I am determined, as a government, as a country, that we grasp that hand of healing, we repay that faith, we rise to the moment,” he said.

The announcement was welcomed by Indigenous leaders, with the group behind the development of the Uluru Statement, which called for the Voice to be established, saying the draft question and constitutional amendment were the culmination of five years’ work.

But the federal opposition raised questions about how the proposed Voice would work.

The Liberal Party’s new Indigenous Australians spokesman, Julian Leeser, said it was important people understood what was being proposed by a Voice.

“You will need to see that detail from the government before you will make a decision about whether you’ll support this,” he said.

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