Prominent Yes campaigner and AFL executive Tanya Hosch has delivered an emotional account of how she emerged from hospital after having her foot amputated to campaign for constitutional change.
She spoke after the Prime Minister at the Playford Civic Centre in the working-class Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth on Wednesday morning — when she outlined her support for the Voice to parliament.
Urging Australians to “not waste a single minute or day” in the six-week campaign to deliver a Voice to Parliament, the social activist appeared on stage in a wheelchair.
“Stop, you’ll make me cry and I haven’t even started yet,’’ she began.
Describing herself as “not without privilege” Ms Hosch said that regardless of that fact, service delivery had “let her down”.
“A little over two weeks ago, I had my lower right leg amputated. And so, having left the hospital only yesterday, I’m standing here on one leg today,’’ she said.
“I have type two diabetes and I contracted a related disease that I have battled for three years and across six surgeries trying to avoid the loss of my limb. I’m not without privilege and access to services, but still the service design let me down.
“I know that if we already had a permanent Voice in place, there would be people around that table that understand my story, my experience and what could make things better and different for me and for people like me.”
She accused some No proponents of engaging in “mischief”.
“There is a lot of noise about the scope of the Voice and some of it is genuine, but some of it is sheer mischief and we say to the mischief-makers that we cannot sit back while decisions that affect us are made without our input and without our expertise,’’ she said.
“We are not interested in being on the periphery of daily life anymore. We want to change life-altering policies – have made hardships seem insurmountable.
“We want to get out of the department of disadvantage and into the world of hope through opportunity and equal outcomes.”
She said it was not often that “a defining moment comes along”.
“A moment that teaches us profound truths about ourselves and each other, and in this case, about our nation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians have been talking about this moment for a long time,’’ she said.
“There comes a time in the life of every nation when it must right the injustices of the past. A time to say no more to exclusion and prejudice. A time for us to be our better selves.
“History is calling us, it is urging us to finish the work of 1967 when more than 90% of Australians voted “yes”. We answered that call unequivocally and emphatically.
“We were not daunted by the fear of failure. We believed in each other. We believed that Australians would opt for inclusion over exclusion. And we did. Now, this generation has to complete the task.”
“An opportunity like this is not only historic, it’s also rare.”
Ms Hosch said it was “time to build a better future for all Australians.”
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“The Australian constitution is ours, it belongs to Australians, and it’s ours to change,’’ she said.
“And now we asked all Australians to stand with us to acknowledge our remarkable cultures and resilience and to vote Yes with us, to finally have that voice.
“Because what has our voicelessness delivered? Poverty and trauma, policy failure and heartbreak, disadvantage and devastation. This is the poisonous legacy of our voicelessness and this is what the opponents of the Voice offer Australia more of.”
