What we learned today, Saturday 30 July
That’s where I’ll leave you. Thanks as always for reading.
Here’s a wrap up of the day:
- The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, laid out the “simple and clear” wording he wants to take to the Australian people on a referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament during his address at the Garma festival in the Northern Territory.
- Albanese’s speech, which received a standing ovation, has also been welcomed by key players in the Uluru Statement from the Heart campaign.
- The Coalition, meanwhile, offered its qualified support for the referendum amid some criticism from within the party.
- Two Saudi sisters found dead in their beds in Sydney last month were asylum seekers with an active claim ongoing with the Department of Home Affairs.
- Australia recorded 127 Covid-19 deaths, with 61 of those coming in Victoria.
Updated
Kate Bush fans gather for Wuthering Heights day in Sydney
A big day in a big year for Kate Bush fans.
Today, apparently, is Wuthering Heights day (I have no idea why). Sydney Park on a sunny Saturday is a fair way from the wily, windy moors of Bush’s 1978 debut single but that didn’t stop fans gathering in their best red dresses to celebrate the song.
It was the first gathering after a Covid-enforced two-year hiatus, but Bush has also won over a whole new generation of fans after another of her hits, Running Up That Hill, received heavy rotation in the latest series of the Netflix show Stranger Things.
Bertin Huynh was there to capture it for us.
Updated
Police allege that a teenager living in the suburbs of Brisbane created and sold a sophisticated hacking tool used by domestic violence perpetrators and child sex offenders to spy on tens of thousands of people across the globe – and then used the proceeds to buy takeaway food.
Given it’s quiet, I might give my own story a little plug.
Last December, as staff inside Investment NSW were preparing to resume the search for a senior trade commissioner based in New York, a brief spelled out instructions given to the recruitment firm charged with finding candidates for the job.
The company was to “focus on female candidates”, according to a copy of the brief prepared for the agency’s chief executive, Amy Brown, that was obtained through parliament.
Instead, in June, the former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro was announced as the successful candidate for the lucrative role. This week, attention turned to just how that happened, including questions about the role deputy Liberal party leader, Stuart Ayres, may have played in the saga.
Updated
A few shots from Garma by picture editor Carly Earl.
Updated
And with that I will hand over the blog to the always excellent Michael McGowan, thanks for reading.
National Covid summary
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 127 deaths from Covid-19:
ACT
- Deaths: two
- Cases: 719
- In hospital: 152 (with one person in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 46
- Cases: 13,425
- In hospital: 2,210 (with 68 people in ICU)
Northern Territory
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 303
- In hospital: 56
Queensland
- Deaths: unreported
- Cases: 18,678
- In hospital: 861 (with 30 people in ICU)
South Australia
- Deaths: four
- Cases: 2,767
- In hospital: 335 (with 10 people in ICU)
Tasmania
- Deaths: one
- Cases: 923
- In hospital: 144 (with four people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 61
- Cases: 8,937
- In hospital: 837 (with 38 people in ICU)
Western Australia
- Deaths: 13
- Cases: 4,034
- In hospital: 417 (with 15 people in ICU)
Updated
South Australia reports four deaths and 2,767 new cases
South Australia is reporting four deaths and 2,767 new Covid cases overnight:
South Australian COVID-19 update 30/07/22.
— SA Health (@SAHealth) July 30, 2022
For more information, go to https://t.co/XkVcAmeZ6V pic.twitter.com/5BchQFL4rt
"This is a generous offer. It is gracious in its generosity given what has occurred in the last 200 years in this country. It is more than what could be expected. It is not a third chamber of parliament," @AlboMP told NITV.#garma2022 #garma pic.twitter.com/2tEWI3O6m0
— NITV (@NITV) July 30, 2022
Queensland reports 18,678 new Covid cases
Queensland has reported a huge jump in Covid cases, reporting 18,678 new cases.
Queensland Health says the higher number is the result of an administrative error and today’s number includes infections as far back as 10 June.
There are 861 people in hospital and 30 in ICU.
Today we are reporting 18,678* new COVID-19 cases.
— Queensland Health (@qldhealth) July 30, 2022
Death numbers are not reported on Saturday and Sunday.
Full details➡️ https://t.co/HPyD6fDZIa pic.twitter.com/DoApcRwXYB
Updated
I believe there is room in Australian hearts for the Statement from the Heart. pic.twitter.com/U67JfBsUiB
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 30, 2022
Parliament's back – here is Amy Remeikis's take on week one
So, this week marked the first for the 47th federal parliament and a lot happened, from first speeches to a return to the sparring of question time and a smoking ceremony.
To take you through it all, here is Amy Remeikis with her breakdown:
Updated
Covid vaccine third dose take-up has ‘stalled to an alarming extent’
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, has conceded that take-up of the third dose of the Covid vaccine has “stalled to an alarming extent”.
In a statement, Butler said that while more than half a million people are getting the fourth does a week, about five million people have “effectively tapped out of the vaccine program”.
There are about five million Australians who effectively have tapped out of the vaccine program. These are five million Australians for whom it’s been more than six months since they had their second dose, but still haven’t had their third.
In spite of an information campaign that we’ve rolled out, information campaigns that the states have rolled out, some of them very clear that two doses is not fully vaccinated. That third dose rate creeps up only about 1% every week.
Updated
Western Australia records 13 Covid deaths and 4,034 new cases
Western Australia is today reporting 13 new deaths overnight, and 4,034 new Covid cases. There are 417 people in hopsital with the virus, and 15 in ICU.
Updated
Thanks Michael McGowan for covering my lunch break, Mostafa Rachwani back with you, with much still going on.
Updated
Handing you back to Mostafa Rachwani for the afternoon.
Today is 25 years since the Thredbo disaster
Shortly before midnight a quarter of a century ago, a deadly landslide hit the popular Thredbo ski resort, killing 18 people.
Mark Pigott remembers the cries of black crows breaking a heavy silence after the Thredbo disaster.
Pigott, an Olympic skier, watched from afar as rescue workers searched through rubble in the days after the landslide in July 1997.
He told AAP:
Whenever they thought they could hear something, they went ‘hush hush hush’.
You could hear a pin drop across the resort. Often the only thing you could hear was the black crows.
Pigott, who competed in acroski at the 1992 Winter Olympics, was in Thredbo and Perisher for training at the time of the landslide, which decimated two ski lodges just before midnight on 30 July.
While staying at the nearby town of Jindabyne, Pigott was woken by a phone call from his father at dawn.
All he said to me was, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘Jindabyne why?’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll find out’.
I ran and put on the TV and, sure enough, there it was.
Today marks 25 years since the landslide, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australian history.
After sunset, skiers will commemorate by carrying flares down the slopes, a longtime weekend winter tradition at the resort.
Ski instructor Stuart Diver was the only survivor after being trapped in a small air pocket under one of the lodges for several days. His wife Sally was one of the victims.
Diver, who is now Thredbo’s general manager, says Australians continue to have an emotional attachment to his story. Last year he told the Better Than Yesterday podcast:
Everyone remembers where they were on that day, when the landslide ended.
I’m really no different to anyone else, I just happened to go through an unfortunate situation and come through the other end.
Updated
Via Nine News in Brisbane.
A 36-year-old woman has been arrested over the murder of an 8-year-old boy in Rockhampton. @9NewsQueensland
— Meg Sydes (@MegESydes) July 30, 2022
Uluru Statement campaigners welcome PM’s Indigenous voice plans
Key players in the Uluru Statement from the Heart campaign have welcomed the PM’s commitment to a referendum question on an Indigenous voice to parliament and a form of words in the constitution, saying the proposal is almost identical to the wording they had put forward in 2018.
Our Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam writes from Garma:
Updated
Coalition offers qualified support for Indigenous voice but wants details
Speaking at the Garma festival, the Coalition’s spokesman on Indigenous Australians, Julian Leeser, offered qualified support for the voice to parliament plan as laid out by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Leeser said it was now up to the government to explain to the people how a voice to parliament would operate.
He said he supported the move to enshrine a voice in the constitution but wanted to see the detail of the question, the proposed reforms and said that if a referendum were to succeed, it would depend on whether the government could adequately explain to the Australian people what the voice would look like.
He said:
We as a Coalition have an open mimd about the issue of the voice that the government is putting forward and we are awaiting the detail.
This is a step today on that road, but we still want to know how the voice itself is going to operate.
He said he looked forward to working with Labor on the issues, and had an “open communication” with the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, and the prime minister.
Updated
Victoria to set up taskforce to tackle foot and mouth
An emergency taskforce to deal with a potential outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease will be set up in Victoria, AAP reports.
It comes as Australian agriculture ministers agreed on a draft national biosecurity strategy at a recent meeting that discussed the disease, which has the potential to cripple the country’s livestock industry.
The Andrews government’s emergency animal disease taskforce will focus on bolstering Agriculture Victoria’s workforce to help manage the potential social, economic and environmental threats posed by foot and mouth.
More than 300 Agriculture Victoria staff are undertaking foot-and-mouth disease-specific training, scenario planning and emergency exercises.
The Victorian agriculture minister, Gayle Tierney, said risk assessment and preparedness was “key in ensuring we’re best placed to respond if there is a positive detection in livestock in Victoria – and we’re doing the work now to protect our industry”.
Victoria is the only jurisdiction that has a mandatory electronic national livestock identification system for sheep and goats, with an average 10.5m sheep tags purchased every year.
State cattle producers buy 2.5m cattle tags each year, according to the Victorian government.
Livestock traceability was among the issues on the agenda for the first meeting of agriculture ministers under the new Albanese government last week.
After an eight-month hiatus, ministers resolved to advance work on a national approach to Australia’s livestock traceability systems, noting a mandatory identification system is urgently needed for sheep and goats.
They agreed in-principle to the draft National Biosecurity Strategy, according to a communiqué published on Friday.
Updated
Greens to push Labor to support other Indigenous proposals before referendum
The Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has issued a statement responding to Anthony Albanese’s Garma speech, saying she’ll seek to meet with the government to push for its support on a series of other proposals prior to the referendum.
Thorpe says she wants the government to show “they’re committed to action, not just symbolism” by adopting, among other things, the recommendations in full from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the 1997 Bringing them Home report.
She says:
This is urgent, and overdue.
I want the government to support our bill to back the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, implement the remaining recommendations from the stolen generations and deaths in custody royal commissions, and back the Greens’ plans for concrete steps towards a treaty.
We don’t have to wait until next year to have our rights legislated. Labor can support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which is being debated in parliament on Monday, to help guarantee that our rights will be protected.
Updated
Good afternoon. This is Michael McGowan taking over for a short shift while Mostafa takes a breather.
A quick Covid-19 update: WA Health is reporting a total of 4,034 new cases to 6pm last night. There are currently 26,939 active cases in that state.
Standing ovation for PM's Garma speech outlining Indigenous voice plan
It was standing room only at the Garma forum where hundreds listened to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, outline his plans for a voice to parliament.
There were cheers and a big round of applause as he said:
Today, I reaffirm my government’s promise to implement the Statement from the Heart at Uluru in full.
This vote and the need for it was to address the rights of First Nations people, whose needs must be addressed and which are “above politics”.
“More of the same will mean things will just get worse,” Albanese said.
There was a standing ovation as he left the stage.
Albanese headed straight over to shake hands and pay respects to Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu.
The PM then walked along the path to meet the Garma youth delegates.
Updated
‘The voice of the Australian people will create a voice to parliament,’ PM says
The PM wraps up his speech to resounding applause, saying that while a referendum is a “high hurdle to clear” and is risky, he believes in the “character of the Australian people”:
A referendum is a high hurdle to clear, you know that and so do we.
We recognise the risks of failure but we choose not to dwell on them – because we see this referendum as a magnificent opportunity for Australia.
This historic decision, this long overdue embrace of truth and justice and decency and respect for First Nations people will be voted into law by the people of Australia.The voice of the Australian people will create a voice to parliament.
And that means all Australians have the chance to own this change, to be proud of it, to be counted and heard on the right side of history.
To vote the unique Australian gift of the wisdom of the world’s oldest continuing civilisation into the constitution of our nation.
I am optimistic for the success of this referendum.
Updated
PM says enshrining an Indigenous voice will be a ‘unifying Australian moment’
The PM says enshrining a voice to parliament will be a moment “above politics” and will be a “unifying Australian moment”.
He warns that “misinformation and fear campaigns” could emerge on the voice, but adds that it won’t stop some of the measures being implemented to support Indigenous communities:
Enshrining a voice will be a national achievement. It will be above politics.
A unifying Australian moment. There may well be misinformation and fear campaigns to counter. But perhaps the greatest threat to the cause is indifference. The notion that this is a nice piece of symbolism – but it will have no practical benefit.
Or that somehow advocating for a voice comes at the expense of expanding
economic opportunity, or improving community safety, or lifting education standards or helping people get the health care they deserve or find the housing they need.Championing a voice won’t stop us from upgrading all-weather roads, so
communities can get the supplies and services they need.It won’t delay our plan to train 500 new Aboriginal healthcare workers … It won’t stand in the way of our new investments in life-saving kidney dialysis treatment. Let us all understand: Australia does not have to choose between improving peoples’ lives and amending the constitution.
Updated
Albanese unveils draft wording of referendum question
The PM also reveals the question that will be put to the Australian people at a referendum, and adds that he wants the vote held during this term of parliament:
We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple as:
Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?
A straightforward proposition. A simple principle. A question from the heart.
We can use this question – and the provisions – as the basis for further consultation.
Not as a final decision but as the basis for dialogue, something to give the
conversation shape and direction. I ask all Australians of goodwill to engage on this.Respectfully, purposefully we are seeking to secure support for the question and the associated provisions in time for a successful referendum, in this term of parliament.
Updated
Albanese reveals new words he will recommend for the constitution
The PM announces the three sentences that he will recommend to be added to the constitution:
Our starting point is a recommendation to add three sentences to the Constitution:
1. There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Voice.2. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
3. The parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Updated
A voice enshrined in the constitution cannot be silenced, PM says
Albanese says the voice to parliament won’t depend on who is prime minister, and will not be a “third chamber”:
Enshrining a voice in the constitution gives the principles of respect and consultation strength and status. Writing the voice into the constitution means a willingness to listen won’t depend on who is in government or who is prime minister.
The voice will exist and endure outside of the ups and downs of election cycles and the weakness of short-term politics.
It will be an unflinching source of advice and accountability.
Not a third chamber, not a rolling veto, not a blank cheque.
But a body with the perspective and the power and the platform to tell the
government and the parliament the truth about what is working and what is not. To tell the truth – with clarity, with conviction. Because a voice enshrined in the constitution cannot be silenced.
Updated
PM speaks of ‘common courtesy ... common sense’
The PM labels the change the government is seeking “simple”, saying it is a momentous change but one that is “common decency”:
We are seeking a momentous change but it is also a very simple one. It’s not a matter of special treatment, or preferential power. It’s about consulting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the decisions that affect you ... Nothing more, but nothing less.
This is simple courtesy, it is common decency. It recognises the centuries-old failure Paul Keating spoke of at Redfern, the failure to ask the most basic human question – how would I feel if this were done to me?
And along with common courtesy, it is common sense. Respect works. When a government listens to people with experience, with earned knowledge of kinship and country and culture and community when we trust in the value of self-determination and empowerment, then the policies and programs are always more effective.
We see it with justice reinvestment, Indigenous rangers, respecting homelands, National Partnership Agreement and the process driven by the Coalition of Peaks and the remarkable Pat Turner.
Updated
Albanese says Australia will answer ‘gracious, patient call for respect’
Next, the PM thanks his colleagues who have joined him, including those from the opposition.
He then goes on to say that Australia will answer the “gracious, patient call for respect”:
We are all here, eager to work with you, to bring our commitment to Uluru to life.
To see Australia answer that gracious, patient call for respect and truth and unity. The Uluru statement is a hand outstretched, a moving show of faith in Australian decency and Australian fairness from people who have been given every reason to forsake their hope in both.
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.
To work with you in lifting the words off the page and lifting the whole nation up, with a new spirit of partnership between government and First Nations people, through the work of Makarrata, treaty-making and truth-telling and by enshrining a voice to parliament, in the constitution.
Updated
Anthony Albanese speaks at Garma festival about Indigenous voice
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, begins his Garma speech with a heartfelt acknowledgement of country and a reflection on his experience at the Bungul held last night as part of the festival.
The PM also states, as he has in the past, that his government will implement in full the Uluru Statement from the Heart:
I acknowledge the people of the mighty Yolngu nation.
I recognise all the elders, leaders and families who have made great contributions to our nation. In particular, I acknowledge the Gumatj clan whose lands we are meeting on.
Last night’s Bungul was a deeply moving moment for me, it was an honour to bear witness to dance and song and story and tradition tracing back some 60,000 years. As the breeze came across me, your ancestors’ presence in these lands and waters makes real your 60,000 years and more custodianship of this land.
And I was grateful also for the chance to meet again with Galarrwuy [Yunupingu] and share in his wisdom, to talk about the opportunities and the challenges in this special part of Australia.
Friends, I am delighted to be back at Garma and I am delighted Garma is back. Here on what is, was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Today, I reaffirm my government’s promise to implement the Statement from the Heart at Uluru in full.
Updated
And Anthony Albanese has stepped up to give his keynote address.
Updated
Anthony Albanese set to speak at Garma festival
We are expecting to hear from the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, very soon, who will be making his Garma keynote address.
The PM will be joined by the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, and Senator Pat Dodson.
Updated
Meteor showers to light up the sky
And in some pleasant news, meteor showers will light up the sky across eastern Australia this weekend.
The Piscis Austrinids meteor shower peaked on Thursday, while the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids are expected to peak tonight. The peak period lasts about 48 hours.
Visibility is expected to be the best tonight, as the new moon will be dark.
You can read more on the showers, plus how best to capture them, in this guide from Cait Kelly:
Updated
AFP says reports of human trafficking and slavery reach highest ever level
Reports of human trafficking and slavery to the AFP have increased to their “highest ever reported”, according to new data released today.
In a statement released earlier today, the AFP says it received 294 reports of modern slavery and human trafficking in the 2021-22 financial year, an increase from 224 in the previous financial year.
It says the five most reported crime types were:
- 84 reports of forced marriage
- 54 reports of sexual servitude and exploitation
- 42 reports of forced labour
- 37 reports of exit trafficking in persons
- 21 of trafficking in children
As a means of countering human trafficking and slavery offences in Australia, the AFP has established a training and awareness program called Look a Little Deeper, with the AFP Commander Hilda Sirec saying it is a first in Australian law enforcement:
This is the first time in Australia’s history where the uptake of a unified training and awareness-raising protocol to combat human trafficking and slavery will be delivered across all frontline agencies and jurisdictions.
This represents a critical step to addressing the scourge of human trafficking in the Australian community and it’s a job the AFP and our partners will work together to combat.
Updated
AMA president lauded for leadership
The Australian Medical Association’s president, Dr Omar Khorshid, has been presented with a citation for exceptional leadership of the medical profession.
In a statement released this morning, the AMA board chair, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said Khorshid was being presented with the citation in recognition of his leadership over the past two years.
Dr Khorshid was elected AMA president during the first peak of the pandemic and quickly became the voice of reason, of calm and of urgency when needed – lobbying government, and fronting the media, along with hard-working vice-president Dr Chris Moy, to send clear messages about the pandemic.
His leadership was particularly critical during the early stages when there was no vaccine, and the focus was on implementing effective public health measures to ensure the safety of the community and healthcare workers.
Dr Khorshid has earned the respect of the nation and his peers for his ethical, intelligent and tireless leadership, calling for public health not politics to drive the nation’s response.
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An honour to meet with so many elders at Garma Festival, including with Gumatj leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu, and share in their wisdom on how we can take our country forward together. pic.twitter.com/wWrzqpCMO4
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 29, 2022
Kate Bush fans celebrate
Happy Wuthering Heights day to those who celebrate! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, today is the day that Kate Bush fans will gather to dance in a field to her song Wuthering Heights. It’s happening at Sydney Park in St Peters in Sydney’s inner west from midday, with participants in the flash mob dance event dressed in red from head to toe.
Bush is back in music charts around the world thanks to the appearance of her No 1 hit Running Up That Hill in the latest season of Stranger Things. Some 1,600 people recently gathered to sing it together at a communal amateur pub choir in Brisbane. You can watch a video of that performance here:
And those in Sydney who want to join in the Wuthering Heights day fun can find the event page on Facebook here.
Updated
Spender: Indigenous voice is an ‘opportunity’
So earlier this morning, independent MP and member of the election-changing teal wave, Allegra Spender, was on ABC News Breakfast, and was asked for her thoughts on the PM’s choice of words for a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.
Spender was asked the question in light of Liberal senator Jacinta Price saying the voice may “divide” Australia, but Spender said the voice was an “opportunity”:
I think there is an opportunity for the whole of the country to get behind a voice to parliament and do this in a really constructive way, and so I think there is that opportunity.
I take her words, I understand what she said, and I acknowledge that a voice to parliament does not solve all problems at all. There is much more of the work that needs to be done, to be supported, but I think that if the parliament, if both parties can get behind this, I think there is a great opportunity for the whole country to get behind this and I think we need to make sure that there is real clarity that this is not a veto.
Updated
Victoria records 61 deaths and 8,937 new cases
Another spike in Covid-related deaths in Victoria, with 61 overnight:
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) July 29, 2022
All of the deaths reported to DH yesterday occurred between 13 July and 28 July.
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/eUcG51fFhA pic.twitter.com/nXJ8dQJWdZ
Updated
NSW records 46 deaths and 13,425 new cases
Another spike in Covid-related deaths in NSW today, with 46 recorded overnight:
COVID-19 update – Saturday 30 July 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 29, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.8% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine*
- 95.3% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine* pic.twitter.com/PoXOILc0xQ
Updated
Space junk found on a sheep farm
In different news this morning, the ABC is reporting that a large chunk of space debris has been found by a sheep farmer in Numbla Vale, south of Jindabyne, NSW.
A large bang was heard on 9 July, reported across the Snowy Mountains and southern NSW, with many taking to social media to question where it came from. Rumours swirled it was caused by the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft re-entering earth’s atmosphere after it launched in November 2020.
The sheep farmer, Mick Miners, came across a large object, almost three metres tall, wedged into a remote part of his paddock. He told the ABC he didn’t know what to think, and that he was told by authorities to “contact Nasa”.
I’m a farmer from Dalgety, what am I going to say to Nasa? I didn’t hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud. I think it’s a concern [that] it’s just fallen out of the sky. If it landed on your house, it would make a hell of a mess.
Updated
‘A momentous occasion’
The official Twitter page for the Uluru Statement from the Heart has tweeted a statement regarding today’s speech from the PM, calling it a “a momentous occasion in our nation’s history”.
We welcome today’s announcement as an important step toward finally giving Australians their opportunity to vote “Yes” at a referendum, and to robustly test the Government’s proposed question & amendment. It’s time! History is Calling!
Today’s speech from #Garma by @AlboMP marks a momentous occasion in our nation’s history. The draft referendum question & amendment is the culmination of comprehensive work led by the @ILC_UNSW & Uluru Dialogue since the #UluruStatement was first issued #auspol pic.twitter.com/BTNPR0ueyz
— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) July 29, 2022
In 2018, Co-Chairs of the Uluru Dialogue Pat Anderson AO & Professor Megan Davis along with a team of legal experts first proposed a draft amendment & question in their submission to the then Joint Select Committee for a First Nations Voice to Parliament. #UluruStatement #auspol pic.twitter.com/pR0WXRC9Ga
— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) July 29, 2022
The 2018 proposal has been extensively tested & advised on by Australia’s leading constitutional minds. Today’s announcement by the Prime Minister is the latest development in this long period of extensive work led by the @ILC_UNSW & the Uluru Dialogue. #UluruStatement #auspol pic.twitter.com/fmiMvUZB6a
— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) July 29, 2022
We welcome today’s announcement as an important step toward finally giving Australians their opportunity to vote “Yes” at a referendum, and to robustly test the Government’s proposed question & amendment. It’s time! History is Calling! #UluruStatement #auspol pic.twitter.com/VksjhJ3wl9
— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) July 29, 2022
Updated
Good morning, and welcome to today’s blog. Mostafa Rachwani with you on this chilly Saturday morning.
We begin with last night’s announcement of the wording to be used on the referendum question regarding whether an Indigenous voice to parliament should be enshrined in the constitution.
To be officially announced during a speech at the Garma festival on Saturday, prime minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian people should be asked a “simple and clear” yes or no question.
This year’s Garma festival follows a two-year break due to the Covid pandemic. Albanese is the first prime minister to visit the festival since 2017.
In other news, Covid cases continue to surge across the country, but there are signs the current peak is easing. But July was still one of the deadliest months during the pandemic, with Victoria alone reporting 650 deaths. The number of deaths nationally in July has surpassed the total in January, when the first Omicron wave hit.
We will keep you updated on case number as they come in, as well as everything else happening around the country.
