Last night, the nation rejected a gracious invitation from Indigenous Australians to recognise them in the Constitution through a Voice to Parliament.
I feel great sadness about that but I unquestioningly accept that result.
This time will be particularly difficult for Indigenous Australians in our community and around the country. We need to recognise, acknowledge and respect their hurt and disappointment.
While our country voted against the Voice, Kooyong voted strongly in favour of it.
I am immensely proud of the more than 750 volunteers who knocked on 20,000 doors and distributed 2,000 signs on the way to Kooyong recording one of the highest ‘Yes’ votes in the country.
I’m not surprised by this.
It continues our community’s journey -- a journey that started at the last Federal election.
Once again, we have rejected cynicism and voted for a more generous and inclusive Australia.
Once again, the real conversations our hundreds of volunteers had overcame the lies and disinformation spread by the Liberal Party — Peter Dutton’s Liberal Party.
Once again, we chose Active Hope, proudly displaying our independence in the face of negative party politics.
We took steps to reconciliation in 1967, with Mabo and Wik, and with the Apology to the Stolen Generation.
We could have taken another step today, but as a country we weren’t ready for that. I hope we will be soon. I’ll work with my community towards that end.