Panel discussion with Hon Linda Burney MP, Minister for Indigenous Australians | Update on the Voice to Parliament

Linda Burney was elected federal member for Barton in 2016, following a 13 year career in the NSW Parliament as Member for Canterbury. During her state political career she served as minister in a number of senior portfolios including as Minister for Community Services and later as Deputy Leader of the Opposition. 

Following her election to the Federal House of Representatives she was immediately appointed as Shadow Minister for Human Services. Then appointed Shadow Minister for Preventing Family Violence in addition to Human Services.

As a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation, Linda was the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the NSW Parliament and the first Aboriginal woman to serve in the Australian House of Representatives. Linda’s commitment to Indigenous issues spans more than 30 years.She began her career as a teacher in Western Sydney and then as an education bureaucrat before being appointed Director General of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 2000. Charles Sturt University awarded her, its first Aboriginal graduate, an Honorary Doctorate in Education in 2002.

Linda has a long-held commitment to the prevention of domestic and family violence, and has detailed publicly her personal experience with it. 

Linda has held senior positions in the non-government sector serving on a number of boards including the SBS, the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, and the NSW Board of Studies.

Professor Dr Megan Davis grew up in Eagleby and Hervey Bay and is a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation. Prof. Davis is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society (PVCS) at UNSW Sydney. Professor Davis is also the Balnaves Chair of Constitutional Law, a Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law Centre UNSW Law. 

She is a renowned constitutional lawyer and public law expert, focusing on the human rights of First Nations peoples. She has been a leading lawyer on constitutional reform for the recognition of First Nations rights for two decades and has led the Uluru Statement from the Heart work for the past five years. She was a Commissioner on the QLD Commission of Inquiry into Youth Detention Centres in 2016 and was the Chair and author of ‘Family is Culture’, an inquiry into NSW Aboriginal Out of Home care (2017-2019). 

She is a globally recognised expert in Indigenous rights and was elected by the UN Human Rights Council to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples based in Geneva in 2017 and again in 2019 (2019-2022) and was previously elected by the Economic and Social Council in New York serving for six years as an expert member and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN Headquarters in New York (2011-2016). 

Prof Davis is an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. She is a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission, a director on the Cowboys Community Foundation Board, a Commissioner for Western Australia Rugby League Commission and director on the International Rugby League board.

Rachel Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and with Danny Gilbert, Co-Chair of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition. AIRC is the organisation co-ordinating the Yes Alliance to secure a majority Yes vote at this year’s referendum.