South Australia has become the first Australian state to legislate an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Thousands celebrated the occasion in the Adelaide rain as governor Frances Adamson proclaimed the legislation in a rare public ceremony outside parliament house. This was on Sunday, after the bill passed the House of Assembly in a special sitting.
South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas declared the Indigenous Voice to Parliament the most powerful show of respect towards Australia’s First Nations people.
Following the legislation’s passing, the bill, accompanied by a contingent of First Nations people was carried out of parliament to the cheering crowds.
Adamson said that South Australia’s founders had good intentions toward Aboriginal people, but that history shows this “did not come to fruition”.
Signing the bill into law, she says this restates her “commitment to supporting the process of reconciliation” in the state and “working side by side with the Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people to achieve this goal”.
Malinauskas said, “For as long as Aboriginal Australia is excluded from sharing in our nation’s prosperity, we carry an injustice that weighs on us all.”
This legislation means South Australia has accepted an invitation, he added, to walk with Indigenous people on a new path towards inclusion and reconciliation.
The premier said South Australia had a proud history of welcoming people from other cultures but that it’s a remarkable Australian tragedy that the one group of people left most behind for the past 200 years were those who, for more than 65,000 years, had provided “great care and custodianship for the land we stand on today”.
“I firmly believe that there are more than a few things that this parliament can learn from the longest-living continuous culture that the world has ever seen,” he said.
The SA legislation allows for six regions to be established across the state each with directly elected representatives. Two members from each group will form the State First Nations Voice, which can address either house of state parliament on legislation of interest to Aboriginal people.
While there’s still administrative work to be done, the state government hopes to have an operational system in place by the end of the year.
“For too long our voices have been excluded or dismissed,” said South Australia’s Commissioner for First Nations Voice, Dale Agius. “From today, we have the right to be heard, at the highest level of decision-making in this state.”
“After today, more than ever, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in South Australia will be able to have their say on the decisions that affect their lives,” Agius said.
“And more importantly, they will have the chance to share with the parliament and the government their aspirations for the future. This is about generational change, to be included and to be heard.”