June 30, 2023Later this year, the Australian people will be asked to vote YES or NO to a single referendum question to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Constitution.
This change was called for in the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’, a statement endorsed by 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention at Uluru on 26 May 2017.
Northern Health wholeheartedly supports the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which our health service is built, the Wurundjeri people, and we acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the Elders past and present.
Through our Reconciliation Action Plan and Aboriginal Cultural Safety Plan, we commit to continuing our work towards closing the gap, improving Aboriginal cultural safety, and improving the health and wellbeing of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and community.
Northern Health encourages its staff to engage in healthy and respectful research and consultation, in line with our organisational values of safe, kind, together, to inform their personal position on the referendum vote.
Northern Health will continue to monitor community response to the referendum and may realign its position accordingly.
