Indigenous Voice in Parliament: WA Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and Stephen Dawson support State Voice

Two senior ministers in the McGowan government have expressed their personal support for the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice in the WA Parliament.

Health Secretary Amber-Jade Sanderson said she was “certainly” in favor of making WA the third state, after Victoria and South Australia, to commit to establishing an Indigenous Advisory Body to Government – but ultimately it was a “cabinet matter”.

Ambulance Services Secretary Stephen Dawson said he “absolutely” supports one vote for WA Parliament but believes the priority is establishing a national body that “we can work in any state process”.

Her comments came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Perth on Wednesday, where he reiterated that a referendum on whether Australians support one vote – scheduled for later this year – is just the first step in the process.

“This is an opportunity to unite the nation,” he said.

“This is a chance for us to be proud to share this continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture and to tell them something I’ve said before – and I consider it good manners – if you’re an influence on.” have someone or a group of people, ask them about it.”

Ms Sanderson, who appeared alongside Mr Albanese, pledged herself and all her WA Labor colleagues to campaign for a yes vote over the vote.

She said WA was one of the first states to change its constitution to recognize Indigenous people as the state’s first peoples – the result of a private member’s bill introduced by former Labor MP Josie Farrer during the Barnett government in the Introduced in 2014 and adopted the following year.

Referring to the establishment of a State Voice proposed in the Calma-Langton report, which Mr Albanese has said would underpin the basis of the Federal Voice, Ms Sanderson said she “certainly supports it in Western Australia”.

“But that is of course a matter for the cabinet,” she added.

Mr Dawson – whose sprawling mining and pastoral constituency covers all of north and east WA – said the feedback he’s had from his community on the vote is crucial.

“For my constituency in the North West I have certainly heard loud and clear from Aboriginal leaders that they want a vote,” he said.