Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Washer, let me add my congratulations to those of others on your elevation to the Speaker’s panel.

The bond between mother and child or a mother and her children is seminal to most societies. The nurturing process may take on many guises and be expressed in many cultural practices but, in the end, it is the fundamental feature of the human condition, regardless of race, colour or religion. That is why the legal systems of the world uphold the bond between mother and child and only seek to sever it in the most exceptional of circumstances. Even foul and despotic regimes have baulked at crossing that fine line that allows the separation of children from families. It is hard to contemplate the grief of Indigenous mothers who suffered when their children were taken from them, or the sadness and bewilderment of children from simple outback environments and what they felt when thrust into institutional care, in many instances with little prospect of reunion. Some never saw their parents again. Certainly some foster parents and religious organisations and institutions did deliver a better lifestyle and future for Aboriginal children. But, equally, others were uncaring and, in some instances, manifestly cruel. Worse still, some of this was done in the name of a loving God—even to the extent of falsely telling children that their parents were dead. How could you just tolerate a thing like that?

Against that backdrop, we are challenged to examine how Australian society measures up over recent generations in the treatment of its Indigenous citizens. While I do not subscribe to generational guilt and while our judgement of past actions may be tempered by the mores of the day and the good intentions of some participants, it is time to strip away the veneer and to examine the forced separation, the hurt it has caused and the long-term effects it has had on many Indigenous Australians. I am prepared to put my own reservations aside and approach this with a generosity of heart and a spirit of healing because, if this apology does not flow from such a spirit and from sincerity, we will not move forward and, when the rhetoric fades away, Aboriginal Australians will be no better off.

I subscribe to the apology statement by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, though I must be honest in saying that I am ambivalent to the word ‘stolen’. The report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families—the operative word being ‘separation’—is very important. But that said I embrace the 17 clauses of the apology.

It would be fair to say that separated children have become in the minds of the Indigenous community emblematic of a history of injustice and marginalisation. But, as much as it is an emblem of the past, it can also be a touchstone for the future. I therefore extend my apology and sorrow and pledge myself to that future.

Sadly, amongst these expressions of goodwill and healing that we have heard this week, there are others out there with agendas masquerading as being necessary adjuncts to an apology. Those who would use it politically demonstrated that by their manipulative encouragement of people to turn their backs on the Leader of the Opposition—people, I might add, who should have known better. Didn’t they realise that their partisanship nearly defeated the inclusion which we all craved? There are those who will use this line in the sand to try to revive an indulged elite who failed their people over recent decades. Further, there will be those who want to retain the permit system to obscure transparency and accountability. Finally, there will be those who would use it as an excuse to encourage compensation and more radical political agendas.

But even let us put those to one side. I firmly believe we must aim for two tangible outcomes from this apology. Firstly, Aboriginal Australians need to genuinely accept and embrace the apology. That will be a most potent tool for breaking down the barriers and bringing all Australians on board in a joint effort to craft a future. Secondly, there must be a total commitment from all sections of Australian society to improve the lot of Indigenous communities encompassing a full range of measures—health, housing, education and employment.

The parliament’s apology should be seen as a defining line in the sand on all matters of Indigenous welfare. It should not be and has never been tolerable that Aboriginal Australians have shockingly bad indicators in almost every measure of wellbeing. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework report of 2006, Indigenous Australians are hospitalised almost three times as frequently as other Australians. They have a 17-year-shorter life expectancy. They live in overcrowded homes on very low incomes. Around half of all Aboriginals drink alcohol to dangerous levels and the same number are chronic smokers. A conservative estimate shows that almost a quarter of all Aboriginals over the age of 17 have experienced violence or have been physically threatened, while an Aboriginal child has a three to four times greater chance of being abused and neglected than he or she would in the mainstream community.

How this can be acceptable today in the Australia we live in is well beyond me, and it is down to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians to accept responsibility for it. Paternalistic attitudes, no matter how well intentioned, have spawned a welfare mentality crippling many Aboriginal communities and drastically reducing self-reliance, personal responsibility and self-determination.

I feel that, for decades now, political correctness and confected cultural sensitivities have been the greatest hurdles we have faced in fixing the serious problems of Aboriginal Australians. One Indigenous leader has said:

Culture is often invoked as a justification for this lowering of expectations and standards. It will be invoked by indigenous community members as well as those developing policies and delivering programs, as a justification for not upholding rigorous standards that apply in the mainstream. We must be careful to ensure that we are not unconsciously using culture as an excuse for failure, poor performance and under-achievement … why is ‘cultural appropriateness’ never invoked as a justification for higher standards and higher expectations—and higher levels of achievement, rather than lower? Beware whenever the words ‘culturally appropriate’ are used: it is usually an alibi for low standards and dumbing down.

Those are not my words; they are Noel Pearson’s from his 2004 position paper Bending to dysfunction, bending to the problems, and I admire his courage and leadership in delivering it.

Fear of offence has left governments and the wider community hesitant, nervous and ultimately reluctant to take the big steps that are sorely needed. For far too long we have fiddled around the edges of an overwhelmingly bad situation, the vast majority of Australians wringing their hands in concern but not prepared to face up to the difficult decisions which must be made. With all due respect, holding hands and singing Kumbaya and We shall overcome might make someone feel better, but I bet it is not an Aboriginal struggling to hold onto his life on some basic reserve.

I acknowledge that some inroads have been made in recent years and that progress in some areas is accelerating. But I implore the new government, and the wider community too, to steel its resolve to keep on the straight and true track. We have drawn a line in the sand, and now is the time for big steps.

The Northern Territory intervention was a dramatic and determined action, although I concede not universally popular. But I believe it was a new beginning for families living in isolated Aboriginal communities. I applaud the new government’s commitment to keep that going. It might not be perfect, but the situation that the government faced was not perfect either. For too long, the plight of Aboriginal Australians has been buried at the bottom of the too-hard basket, papered over with banknotes. That exact approach has left us where we are today, and we all carry some responsibility for what has happened.

Those who are at the coalface of working to make life better in remote Aboriginal communities—police, nurses, teachers—deserve a gold medal. The path that they are on is tough: too little manpower, too few resources and not enough resolve at the highest levels of bureaucracy and government. ‘Shoved under the carpet’ is an apt phrase.

Let me end on an optimistic note. Aboriginal advancement has been accelerating over recent years. Indigenous Australians have excelled in a multitude of fields including medicine, health, law, art, sport, the stage and politics. There have been some marvellous Aboriginal leaders in the past, people such as Harold Blair and Neville Bonner, and more recently people like Tania Major, Noel Pearson and Chris Sarra. They are beacons for future generations, and we would do well to listen to them and work with them to make sure Aboriginal Australians have a better future.

On Wednesday a marvellous event occurred in this parliament. It was charged with goodwill and great emotion. It was a new beginning for Aboriginal people if one thing happens, which is that the symbolism of that day is captured and crafted into a future for Aboriginal people. We all bear a lot of guilt and I repeat my sorrow, but what we must not do is lack commitment from here on in. Unless there is a great commitment from all Australians, and a great acceptance and welcoming from the Indigenous population of Australia of this apology, then a lot of this will be lost and that would be a tragedy. I commend all 17 points of the statement by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and I commit myself to see that it is carried out.

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