The ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) wants the government to begin to address deep and ongoing wrongs inflicted against First Nations people, through implementing all recommendations of the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (many of which have not been implemented 35 years later); a constitutionally guaranteed Voice to Parliament, as the Uluru Statement from the Heart proposes; and committing to Closing the Gap.

The minimum age of criminal responsibility should also be raised to 14 nationally, as the ACT Government has already committed to doing.

“We can have no social justice in Australia without first achieving justice for and with Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islanders,” Dr Emma Campbell, ACTCOSS CEO, said at the organisation’s recent forum for Federal candidates.

Labor was the only party that fully supported implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in the order in which it was recommended, Dr Andrew Leigh MP, member for Fenner, stated: “Voice, Treaty, Truth”. It would constitutionally enshrine a Voice to Parliament and work to Close the Gap.

Labor was also committed to improving the say of First Nations people within its team; it had three “fabulous” Indigenous members of caucus – Linda Burney, Senator Pat Dodson, and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy – and a wide range of Indigenous candidates running.

“I really hope that we’re able to expand our Indigenous representation,” Dr Leigh said.

Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng, Greens Senate candidate, said that as chair and national convenor of the Foundation for Indigenous Recovery and Development Australia and a member of ACTCOSS, she was “on board” with everything ACTCOSS proposed.

The Greens support the Uluru Statement in its entirety, she stated. She attended the Uluru Statement convention in 2017, and explained that the Uluru reforms were not in any order; they were a circle of interconnected relationship of Makarrata agreement making.

“Sovereignty is the main issue that we should now be fighting for,” Dr Goreng Goreng said.

Several voices to the ministers and the government – the National Aboriginal Conference, the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission – had been “taken away”.

“We do not want a constitutionally recognised voice in the Australian constitution, for the very reason that that can happen again. What we are holding out for is sovereignty on the basis of the Truth and Justice Commission providing the parameters of a treaty; we can then strike a treaty which will include a Voice to Parliament.

“I’ve been waiting all my life for sovereignty. The colonial government has no right to have stolen our sovereignty, and they have no right to say that only they will give it back. they must strike an equitable and equal treaty with us as sovereign nations of this country. That will right all the wrongs of the past.”

Professor Kim Rubenstein, Independent Senate candidate, has committed to enshrine the First Nations Voice to Parliament into the Constitution, and support a Makaratta Commission for agreement-making between governments and First Nations, and truth-telling about Australia’s history.

She considers the Uluru Statement from the Heart “the best form of ‘Active Citizenship’, engaging with First Nations communities all around Australia. Our Constitution is out of date, and needs to be updated to recognise and reflect the crucial voices of First Australians.”

Independent Senate candidate David Pocock has also pledged to back the Uluru Statement from the Heart to ensure First Nations people have a voice in shaping the nation; he will support Voice, Treaty and Truth, in that order.

“We need to accept the incredibly generous offer contained in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and to make actual progress on Closing the Gap,” his website states.

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• ACTCOSS calls for more taxes on wealthy