Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to follow the honourable member for Calwell on this apology to the stolen generations. Whether or not we like it, last week was a very historic week for the parliament and the people of Australia. For the first time in more than a century of national parliament we had an Indigenous welcome. We as a parliament of Australia formally acknowledged the fact that we have a very proud Indigenous community. I thought that the welcome was just outstanding and I think it made us all feel so very, very proud.

I would also like to place on record my appreciation for the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Brendan Nelson. Some may criticise the speech he gave on the apology; others may not. History will be the judge. But he gave the great gift to Australia of bipartisan support for this apology to the stolen generation. I want to acknowledge it and say as a member of the government quite sincerely how much I appreciated it.

It is fitting in talking about an apology to acknowledge the Ngunawal people, the Indigenous people of Canberra. I would also like to acknowledge the fact that in Chifley we have a multicultural group of Indigenous people. I would like to sincerely acknowledge the Dharruk people, the original Indigenous people of that area, but also acknowledge that I have elders of many other peoples as well in my electorate. It is a blessing.

I have to say that the apology is something that is very close to my heart and my home. My electorate of Chifley has the largest urban Indigenous population in Australia and for the past decade has been the only community to continue the annual walk and gathering for reconciliation. I reflect on the recently gained section of my community, namely the eastern Blacktown end. In 1814, Governor Macquarie built a school for Aboriginal people in Parramatta. They had been gathered there after European farmers drove them off their land to use it for their own cultivation. When the suburb of Parramatta began to expand, the new settlers complained about living so close to the Aboriginal people. So from there the school was moved further west to the corner of what is now Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road North. The area around the school and the land that had been granted to the Aboriginals became known as ‘Black’s Town’, and from there the suburb of Blacktown gained its name.

I am proud to recognise the Indigenous history of my electorate, just as I am proud of the Indigenous people of my electorate of Chifley today. I am fortunate enough to have active and talented elders and community leaders in my local Indigenous community. These elders and leaders act as mentors and leaders for the younger Indigenous members in Chifley. I have spoken in this House before about Father Paul Hanna, who worked in the Holy Family Parish. He is joined by elders such as Uncle Wes, Auntie Gloria and Auntie Mavis—a Dharruk elder and direct descendant of Maria Lock—and many more who find their work with young people of particular significance. They run camps and holiday programs to give disadvantaged Indigenous residents a chance to see what their land has to offer and to pass on the wisdom of their ways, their traditions and their stories to the next generation.

We always talk about the Indigenous connection with the land, saying that this is a spiritual connection. I do not know that all of us can aspire to have that depth of understanding and feeling for it, but I can say that there are many non-Aboriginals who, when we are at sea or working the land, have a spiritual connection with it. I am certainly one of those and I feel that connection has better enabled me to serve, especially the Indigenous community of my electorate—at least, I certainly hope that that is the case.

I certainly thank the elders for the journey that they have taken me on. For over a decade the people of my community, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, have gathered for the annual Walk for Reconciliation, to continue the traditions of native people of this land, to reflect on their history and to send forward the message of reconciliation. For years I have joined them, both in helping to organise the event and in walking in support of my local Indigenous people. I have always been proud to stand in support of them during those events in the wilderness years, and last week in parliament I was honoured to be part of a government, a Rudd Labor government, which finally recognised the ultimate act for reconciliation and said sorry to the stolen generations and the Indigenous peoples of Australia and acknowledged the Indigenous owners of the land by holding a welcome to country at the opening of parliament.

In my own electorate I am often asked what this means: does it mean that the current generation should accept the guilt for the past 200 years? I think the answer to that is no. This apology is not about apportioning blame for the past but is about recognising that children were forcibly removed from their families and acknowledging the pain and suffering that was caused to Indigenous children, their mothers and fathers across the nation. This country set the world’s best practice in displacing our Indigenous people. This apology is about opening our eyes to the gross mistakes that have been committed in the country we love so dearly. We open our eyes so that we can look into the future and accept responsibility for closing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and accept responsibility for providing better health service to neglected Indigenous communities which have seen health standards fade at the cost of their children’s wellbeing.

Saying sorry is about taking strides towards giving quality education to Indigenous communities, as our Prime Minister has already pledged to do during his address. But most of all it is about all Australians moving forward together as a people. I am again proud to be a member of parliament which will put party politics aside to create a cross-party task force to tackle Indigenous issues in our country. I note that all state and territory parliaments have already apologised to the stolen generations. Yet there is a significance to this House, a significance which comes with an apology from the federal government. It is the importance of giving the message of reconciliation a national voice, which is our ultimate responsibility in this House. We act with the intention to honour the Indigenous people of this land while reflecting on their past mistreatment. This is certainly not an easy topic to raise. It is certainly a recognition of the blemishes on our nation’s history. But we should also stand proud that, in this House, we no longer accept that we can brush aside our mistakes, leaving them ignored, and hope that problems that they have caused will go away. We recognise that inaction is never the answer, and it is far from what we were elected to do in this House. We recognise the voice of Indigenous people of this country, which on its own is not loud enough. So we in turn lend them ours. We lend them ours because we see the mistakes that they have had to face and face to this day. When the Bringing them home report was tabled it brought to light several upsetting circumstances. It is a particular disappointment that the first lines of such a report read:

Grief and loss are the predominant themes of this report. Tenacity and survival are also acknowledged.

The main findings of the report were that, nationally, between one in three and one in 10 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970. Indigenous children were placed in institutions, church missions, adopted or fostered, and were at risk of physical and sexual abuse. Many never received wages for their labour, which was often backbreaking work carried out to build the foundations of our country. Welfare officials failed in their duty to protect Indigenous wards from abuse. Under international law, from approximately 1946 the policies of forcible removal amounted to a form of genocide, and from 1950 the continuation of distinct laws for Indigenous children was racially discriminatory.

But this only explains the need for a symbolic apology, which ignores the ongoing problems. The report has also shown us that the stolen generations mistake is not at all a phenomenon of the past but the removal of Indigenous children continues today. Indigenous children are six times more likely to be removed for child welfare reasons and 21 times more likely to be removed for juvenile justice reasons than non-Indigenous children. For this to be the case, when we know full well with regret about the forced removal of children, is appalling. I think all members must agree that, when such a resounding detail remains true, more needs to be done to rectify these issues with some haste.

Before the apology was made last week, people were still asking: ‘Why apologise?’ The thinking was that this was a problem of many generations ago. It is important that we note that not to recognise and not to act on issues that are left from those mistakes still to this day would cause dire consequences, and all members who welcome this apology should be commended for realising this fact. It is with these findings and these intentions that I am proud to support the apology made by the federal Labor government, an apology which faces the future to fix the wrongs of the past so that all Australians may continue to move forward together, one nation.

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