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.

As a doctor, paediatrician and infection specialist I am unequivocally voting YES to having a Voice to Parliament. First Nations people’s health and wellbeing should be one of the top priorities not only for our government but for each of us individual Australians.

I was born & raised in Coonabarabran & benefited deeply from growing up with the Gamilaraay mob there under the Warrumbungles. I will be voting yes & will always say yes to any measure that promotes substantive equality. This is our work now, listening, learning, being ready to change.

Do we want a permanent voice to our parliament from the oldest living people on our planet, to represent their own needs and share with us their wisdom and learnings?  What is holding you back from saying Yes?? The Voice to Parliament cannot itself change any laws or right any wrongs but it will highlight to our country, and the world, that we are ready to listen and work together.

I want to be proud of my country, a country that can admit we took something that wasn't ours and has the integrity to return some sovereignty to First Peoples. I deeply value democracy, but our pre-colonial history demands and deserves one that prioritises those who were here first.

I have the honour to collaborate with several Aboriginal and Torries Strait businesses that are using traditional knowledge and practices to solve complex climate, community and health issues which will benefit all Australians.

Vote YES for a better Australia for all.

I have a personal interest in the YES Referendum. Over the years, my family has provided university scholarships for several First Nation young people. Besides providing them with financial benefits, we brought them into our home, and we treated them the same as our sons. We provided guidance, love and responded to their individual needs. Now they are independent adults and remain part of our family.

When I saw rock paintings of hands in touching distance in Arnhem Land on a hike only recently, it did my head in. More than 20,000 years ago somebody painted that handprint around their own hand with specially made ochre on a cave wall. This person spoke to me and somehow looked directly into my being. They left a message from the past for the future. 

If we vote NO, we will be rejecting an invitation carefully crafted by First Nations people themselves, over years of thoughtful national consultation, culminating in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. That invitation is addressed to us individually and collectively, not to governments.

I believe we should truly deeply acknowledge and pay our respects to the 65,000 years of custodians of the beautiful lands we occupy today by listening to them.

I will be voting Yes to the Voice as, in my opinion, it is the only option which will allow progress towards actually closing the gap between outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.