Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Bevis, it is a pleasure to see you in the chair. I am sure you will give good rulings and keep the parliament in good order. It is great to be back. This is my first speech since being re-elected. To my parliamentary colleagues on the other side and to the clerks and attendants who keep us all going: it is a pleasure to be back and I thank you for looking after us.

It was a special day when the apology was given last week. I want to touch on the first paragraph of the Prime Minister’s apology motion. It stated:

… today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

When you think about it, all those different clans that make up the Indigenous people of Australia are incredible cultures. I will never forget visiting Wybalena on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait. It is the place to which Australian Aborigines were taken after they were gathered up by Reverend Robinson. Many of them perished as a result of the changes in their lifestyle—through not being able to live their natural life on the Tasmanian mainland. I remember that that was a very moving experience for me some years ago.

In responding to the motion of apology to the stolen generation, I firstly want to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunawal people, and recognise their ancestors and elders for caring for this country for many centuries. I also want to acknowledge the traditional owners in my electorate of Lyons, in Tasmania, and thank them for looking after that most beautiful part of Australia. I grew up on a small farm of 300 acres which had the unusual name of ‘Canara’. I remember as I gazed at the Great Western Tiers, the mountains which ran not far from that farm where I grew up, asking my father what that name meant. He told me it was a Tasmanian Aboriginal word that meant ‘a small band or clan’. I have not been able to prove that or find it anywhere, and I guess that, to a great degree, that is because of the loss of the Tasmanian Aboriginal language.

I was so pleased to witness the welcome to country that formed part of the opening of this parliament. It is vital that the institution of parliament recognise the importance of these processions and events that demonstrate respect for the first people of this country. Respect is the primary value that we should demonstrate in all our relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We need to respect their history as much as ours and respect their cultures and languages as we at the same time nurse our own diverse community cultures, languages and traditions. Respect must be at the heart of engagement with the first Australians. When we design and implement government policies that affect Indigenous peoples, and when we make agreements with traditional owners to access the lands and waters for resource development, we need to demonstrate a level of respect for the aspirations of Indigenous peoples which has been lacking on many occasions so far. The welcome to country ceremony is the first step in this journey.

As I watched the speakers and dancers at the welcome to country ceremony, I thought about other amendments we might be able to make to our traditions at the opening of parliament. Given that these formal occasions draw heavily on the rules of the mother parliament of the United Kingdom, it is time to reconsider these traditions. Some we might want to keep and others we could change. My first suggestion is that we involve Indigenous people even more in the opening processes of parliament. We could probably do away with the buckles and bows of the Usher of the Black Rod and include an Indigenous owner and a didgeridoo or clap sticks to lead the House through a more Indigenous and distinctly Australian parliamentary process. Indeed, it is a sign of maturity that this government is able to embrace the cultural welcome of the traditional owners of this Parliament House and thereby within the notion of parliamentary sovereignty.

Traditional owners often assert their prior sovereignty over this country, and it is undeniable that Indigenous peoples were here long before my family, which started with the Second Fleet into Sydney, and many others who have arrived since. I hope that we can engage Indigenous peoples on an equal footing to acknowledge past wrongs as well as celebrate continuing successes. In this way we will demonstrate respect for the traditional owners and build trust into our relationships with the first people, and from this basis we can work together on improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples in all parts of the country.

One of my longstanding priorities has been to invest in the education and training of young people in Lyons, the electorate that I represent in Tasmania, and of young people generally. It is an extreme wrong that some Indigenous kids do not attend school, not just in remote locations but in the regions and cities—even here in Canberra. We need to work harder and smarter to engage Indigenous families in education and training. I am optimistic about the capacity of the new Labor government to deliver on this need. With greater engagement in education and training come the opportunities for employment, housing and life choices that fit with the aspirations of Indigenous people. We are all diminished while the wellbeing of Indigenous people is so much worse than that of the vast majority of Australians.

I endorse the apology outlined by the Prime Minister and urge this House to work with purpose and energy to demonstrate respect for and to build trust with Indigenous peoples so that we can bridge the gap of disadvantage as quickly as possible. We must work hard so that last week’s achievements are not lost. We must all work harder in this parliament to achieve much more. We must assist the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in their coming together in their so-called ‘war cabinet’ to look at Indigenous housing. Indigenous housing can play an important role in improving the health of Indigenous people. We must all endeavour to make those things happen, and it is incumbent upon all of us to do so. We must narrow the gap between life expectancies or eliminate it altogether. As I said, housing will be one of the great beginnings in that area. The social indicators in relation to Indigenous Australians are very bad. There is a difference of 17 years in the life expectancy of white and Indigenous Australia. That is a very bad figure, and it is incumbent on all of us to eliminate it.

In the area of education, we must continue to improve. We must continue to bring education to Indigenous people. I understand that, in some parts of the Northern Territory, there are hardly enough schools and there are kids who do not go to school or who go to school for half a year. That is not good enough, either, and we have to work to improve that with the Indigenous people. Just imagine what apprenticeships could do for Indigenous people. Just imagine the next generations coming on that do get into training, that can get into apprenticeships, that can go on to get diplomas and that can go on to get degrees. These are the hopes and aspirations in the motion by the Prime Minister last week in that moving ceremony that we were all part of at the opening of this parliament. I certainly hope that it does move us all, that it gives us all aspiration and inspiration to go on and, as I said, work hard in this parliament to achieve many of those things that we set out to do and that we are going to strive for.

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