Switchboard Victoria supports an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

Switchboard believes that establishing a Voice to Parliament is a powerful first step toward Treaty in this country and to enable First Nations people to have a say on the decisions and policies that impact their lives, land and futures. Our support of the Uluru Statement includes each step of Voice, Treaty and Truth. As a service based in Victoria, we equally pledge our support for the Victorian process of Treaty and Truth first.

The establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution (Uluru Statement from the Heart) presents us with a profound opportunity to affirm and extend the role of First Nations people as integral in our national governance. 

Switchboard is based on the unceded lands of the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung peoples, we pay our respects to all Elders past and present and extend those respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across this country we know as Australia. We join the Boon Wurrung people and their elder N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM in their call to vote YES in 2023.  

We acknowledge the strength and resilience of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who identify with LGBTIQA+ communities, including Brotherboys and Sistergirls. We recognise that First Nations peoples have always had rich and diverse understandings and practices of sexuality and gender, and that homophobia and transphobia were introduced and criminalised under colonial occupation. 

We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as diverse individuals, with a historic and continuing connection to culture, land and waters – a right and responsibility that was stolen and remains unceded to this day. In this context, we endorse and encourage all LGBTIQA+ people to vote ‘YES’ for the Voice in the national referendum as the first step towards Treaty. 

The LGBTIQA+ community knows from our experiences during the Marriage Equality survey and again with the public discourse surrounding the transgender community, that national debates about our lives can be extremely distressing and harmful. With this referendum First Nations LGBTIQA+ peoples are again having to endure a public debate about their communities, lives, and rights. The surrounding public debate will likely have lasting impacts on the social and emotional wellbeing of many First Nations people. At Switchboard we are committed to ensuring our services are a safer place for First Nations LGBTIQA+ people to turn to, and receive support from, during this time and into the future.

We acknowledge there will be different preferences and ideas about how best to strengthen the place of First Nations people in our national government, and that alternative views will continue to be expressed in conjunction with discussion on the referendum. In engaging in this discussion Switchboard Victoria calls on all LGBTIQA+ people and the broader community to be actively kind and engage in the debate thoughtfully and consider impacts on First Nations peoples. Debate can never be an excuse for racism and/or attacks on First Nations people and Switchboard will call it out at every opportunity.

In calling for all LGBTIQA+ people to be informed and Vote YES, we recommend these resources to become a better ally to First Nations people, and to further understand the lives of First Nations LGBTIQA+ people.