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In my time as Governor General of Australia, I was immensely fortunate to meet and get to know Australians from all walks of life, and from all our amazing places. I do believe that Australians, reading the invitation extended so generously in the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk together with our First Nations people, will accept it wholeheartedly for what it is: a chance to address past failures, to have Parliament informed directly by Indigenous voices, and indeed, to make a better future for all Australians. There will never be a better time.

I want the next generation of leaders to have a smoother ride than their previous leaders have had. And what a promising generation we have coming up. Young people who are culturally and morally sound. They have been grounded in their own cultures, their life experiences and the teachings of senior people and Elders. They also have been educated in the western sense, having degrees and other qualifications to navigate their worlds.

Through my life in business and politics I have always believed in the power of the Australian community to back good ideas when presented with them. Currently, there is no better or bigger idea facing the Australian community worth backing than the one to enshrine the Voice to Parliament in the Constitution at the upcoming referendum.

I want to be part of the movement that gives better recognition and acknowledgement of First Nations in this land. I want to see First Nations peoples in Australia enjoy the same privileges as everyone else and not be left behind.

It will make a practical difference to the lives of Indigenous peoples by providing the right advice to government and the Parliament about how to achieve better outcomes and better targeted government spending.

Meaningful recognition of Australia’s ancient and continuing First Peoples in the Constitution, and the Voice that makes this possible, is crucial. It is practical and symbolic. An essential first step towards treaty, truth and a fully formed nation, where everyone is fully respected. Queensland might then actually live up to its old slogan, ‘beautiful one day, perfect the next’.

I was a lawyer, an Anti-Discrimination Tribunal President, and Qld Supreme Court Judge, for 35 years. Across those years I saw that simply saying "that was the past, now we are all equal" wouldn't work.

This referendum offers Australians a once-in-a-generation opportunity to collectively, as a nation, chart a new course forward. A course that, by giving First Nations communities a seat at the table, will lift up the voices crying out for better health outcomes, better employment opportunities, and an end to domestic and family violence.

I don't want to be asked this question again in 30yrs. Oct 14th will be a true reflection on our country and I hope that by now we have matured enough as a nation to know that we must say YES now. Older generations owe my generation this and I owe younger generations this. It is time we walk together. To actually be making strides towards equality where an Indigenous life is valued, respected, cared for and loved as much as mine.

Being empowered is the strongest way to achieve long-term goals and this is what a Yes vote to the referendum offers Aboriginal people and is why I am voting in the affirmative.

I was thinking about how white settlement in Australia has only been for 246 years therefore I have been alive for a 5th of that period which is a huge percentage of this time and unfortunately while I have benefited greatly in my own life by just being born here the situation for many Aboriginal people in this country has remained dire. I see this moment as an opportunity for me to play a direct role in the solution by voting YES not perpetuate the problem through voting No.

We live in a beautiful country that is shared with all different cultures of the world, and yet we still have to beg and plead for change and to be recognized, and often our plead is never heard and our solutions for our problems go unnoticed. We have so much money wasted on inquests, royal commissions, reports, programs and policy changes.

I grew up in the 60s in SE Queensland where racism was rife. I could never understand it. I still don't. Our First Nations peoples have been here for over 60,000 years; this is their country, their land and I feel a great sense of shame as a 'white' privileged woman I get to vote whether our First Nations peoples be included in the Constitution. It is way past time. it is 200 odd years past time. Enough.

I asked how they wanted me to vote - emphatically, they wanted me to vote yes. The First Nations sisters, in particular, explained to me that while it does address some of the historical trauma and continued marginalisation, the Voice is not really for them or for us now in the present; rather, it is for their children, our children. Our future.

This recognition sets our country on a path of hope and greater wisdom, and will help us stop making the same, in many cases, catastrophic mistakes, that we have made in the past.

How blessed are we? We live on the lands of the longest surviving continuous culture in the world. In Queensland we have two, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities. To consider anything other than a YES vote at the upcoming referendum would be an enormous tragedy for our country.

Our dark history shames us. But we have a chance to each and every one of us help make a bright and blak future. I’m tired of looking at Australia through a deficit lens. I want a powerful strong nation full of joy and hope and building on strengths. It’s time to change the narrative.

The Voice has been specifically asked for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the first petition from First Nations people presented directly to the Australian people. Not to our government, but to us. The Statement asks for Truth, Treaty and Voice.

Treaty between nations. Truth, or Makarrata, the telling of the stories as they are. And Voice. A voice to Parliament, that represents the interests of First Nations people. A Voice that cannot be taken away.

As a migrant woman, its been encouraging to see so many women from diverse backgrounds come together to support the Yes Voice Campaign and who are also sharing their stories, voicing their support and actively participating in the Yes Voice campaign.

I am one of many who don’t have a relevant story to tell, unfortunately. But I do have experience of change. When dealing with a change, fear (of the unknown) is the most obstructive emotion triggered. Together, we are a strong and courageous nation. Divided, fear will weaken us. I am voting ‘Yes’ to moving forward as an inclusive, accepting, courageous, proud Australia.

Recognition and Voice as legal responses will allow us to move from a position of denial of the standing of First Peoples, to one affording the space for expression of their aspirations.

In 2015-2017, I travelled Australia in a caravan for 600 days with my family, it wasn't a holiday, it was an adventure. When my daughter (she was about 8 at the time) finished visiting a museum in Tasmania and hopped in the car and said "Mum, we stole this country from the Indigenous didn't we?", I immediately hurt.

Working in the community sector, mainly in the Settlement space for 20+ years, you meet remarkable people who are selfless and serving community everyday. Through this time I have met many First Nations people, one in particular was Aunty Coral who made a huge impact in my life by sharing her story and why she worked for Child Protection.

I will be voting yes on 14th October not just because I think it’s the right thing to do but because giving Australia’s First Nation people a Voice is overdue by at least 177 years. Why 177 years? Well that would be 1846 when Queen Victoria received the first petition from First Nation people - the first of many to be presented to royalty, statesmen/women and upholders of the law since then.

I'll be voting Yes in the upcoming referendum on the Voice to Parliament because I want to be on the right side of history. When future generations ask me how I voted I will proudly say I voted Yes for a First Nations Voice to Parliament.

It is about listening, and if white people, people in government, people with structural power, people with decision making power, people who have benefited from colonisation, are finally prepared to listen. If you are ready to listen, to listen and learn, then you must vote yes.

Both my lived experience in a remote community, my professional work in advocacy, and stakeholder relations tells me better outcomes are achieved when you engage the people you are impacting to create solutions.

Many of my mentors and friends have been strong First Nations women. As community leaders, mothers, grandmothers and workers they have struggled with the injustices, powerlessness and exclusion of our systems. 

As someone who dedicated 15 years of my life to working within the prison system, I witnessed first-hand the devastating aftermath of lives shattered by the cycle of violence, trauma and injustice. These experiences have driven me to look at our country through a different lens and focus my efforts on preventing violence in all its forms.

This country is at a crossroads.  The referendum to establish a Voice presents every one of us with a chance to create a new partnership with First Nations people, to start a new journey together and build a better future for all of us. The change in the wording of our Constitution is the first step.

Brené Brown has taught us shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change - let’s be vulnerable enough to move together towards a national identity that enables us to truly share pride in the incredible heritage of this vast and resilient place and the enduring tenacity and love of the people who have walked and worked it for millennia.