Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to congratulate every member of this House who in some way, large or small, has played some part in this apology to the Indigenous people of Australia. I want to also thank the member for Forde, a new member who has just made his contribution, for his thoughts and for his part in that apology. I want to thank every member of this House for their part because it is important that we do it on behalf of the Australian people and on behalf of the Australian parliament. This is not something that we do individually or personally—although that is important as well. It is very important that the Indigenous people of Australia understand that this is a bipartisan, parliamentary and government apology for things that have happened in the past.

I also want to make a note that, without any doubt in my mind, this is one of the most significant events to have happened in this place for a very long time. I do not know that we truly understand today just how significant that is. Perhaps in 10, 20, 50 or more years time people will reflect and members of parliament will reflect on the words and speeches and on the apology itself and look back at what we did at that historic moment, that time when the Australian parliament officially made an apology to the Indigenous people of Australia. It is very significant and probably one of the most significant things that we will have done in this place.

It seems on the surface so simple, so normal, so natural for it to happen. It certainly was an emotional time for not only members of parliament but the community at large, certainly for Indigenous people, people that were there on the day in the gallery, people that were watching from outside, people that were listening on radio, and people that rang my office, emailed, wrote, texted and in whatever form they could lent their support to what was taking place. It was an outpouring of a national sense of pride in what was happening.

I would like to, for the record, read the words of the apology so they can be associated more directly with my speech. With the indulgence of the Main Committee:

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

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

I wanted to read that into the record because I actually believe in the words. I think they are most profound and most significant and will make a huge difference to this nation.

For many people, arising out of the apology was the question: why apologise? There have been many explanations given as to why we should apologise and I will not give any of them, because I feel that, if you get to the point in a conversation or a debate where you need to explain to anybody why something needs to happen, you have already lost your argument. This needs no further explanation. The words contained in the apology in themselves are sufficient explanation, sufficient reason for this apology to have taken place.

I also want to refer, on the record, to the very significant moment at the opening of the 42nd Parliament in 2008 where we did a welcome to country. Many Australians listening to my words or reading them later would understand that a welcome to country is quite a normal, well-accepted and well-used way of bringing people together at a particular event. I can think of no more natural, normal and significant way for the Australian parliament to begin its proceedings and open a new parliament than to have a welcome to country. The beauty about it was that, as I sat in the Great Hall, not too sure just how the welcome to country would take place, I felt a welling of emotion, a sense of pride. I just felt this was so much part of what an Australian parliament should be. We are an Australian parliament and this was just a very natural thing to have taken place. By the time the hour had elapsed and we had done the welcome to country, I realised just how that welcome to country from Indigenous folk is meant to be. It really is about opening your arms up wide. It really is about saying, ‘The doors are open to all Australians.’ It really is about saying, ‘You’re all welcome.’

We heard many, many stories on that day—and not only from the Prime Minister but also in the speeches that followed—but one in particular that sticks in my mind is of an elderly Aboriginal gentleman in Canberra who came to the opening of parliament in the early seventies and was told to move on. He was basically told that he was not welcome. Reflecting on that, you would think that today that would be impossible—today, how dare we or anyone else take that attitude? We would all rally up with cries of shame. How could we possibly accept that today, in 2008, we would allow an Aboriginal person, an Indigenous person—or any other person, for that matter—who just wanted to witness proceedings and be a part of the opening of an Australian parliament to be turned away because of who they are? But that did happen and it happened not so long ago. It happened 30 years ago, which seems not long ago at all.

The significance of this event—the welcome to country and the apology to Indigenous Australians—I think is the turning of a page, the writing of a new page in history. It is so many significant things. It is a commitment that has been made by this parliament and by this generation of Australians, on behalf of all of us, to Indigenous people. I said at the start and I will say it again: this is not a political matter. This is not an issue of partisan politics because, in the end, it is bigger than each of us individually and, I would say, bigger than all of us collectively. This is a significant event for all Australians, whoever we are and wherever we are from.

Interestingly, from some polls taken since the apology, it seems that about 70 per cent of Australians are in support of the apology. There will always be some who do not support something, but they are very much a small voice. I think with the passage of time they will come to understand and to realise that this was a really good thing to do—just a really good and decent thing to do. Seventy per cent is a good figure, in fact, and I am quite proud that so many Australians are fully supportive of what took place. I also want to say that there is a great sense of pride in my local community—in Ipswich, in Inala and right throughout the western corridor. I know how much this means to a lot of people who are not asking for anything out of this. I think, deep down, they just wanted to have this sense of ‘we’re Australian as well’ and ‘we belong’. It is very, very important.

While I have the opportunity, I also want to make mention of Ipswich City Council, who have spent the past two years working on an agreement with local Indigenous people on land use. It is significant because it is the first of its kind in Australia. It is significant because it demonstrated leadership; it showed the way forward. This document, which the Ipswich City Council spent two years negotiating in partnership with local Indigenous groups, will be used as a template for all other councils around Australia. I would recommend any council to look at it and see what took place. It was the first time that a local government authority sat down genuinely, in equal partnership, with its local Indigenous people and said: ‘We want to have a land use agreement with you. We want to do that because we respect your views and your appreciation of the land and we want to work with you.’ I think that is really important, so I mention on the record the leadership that was shown by Ipswich City Council and its mayor. I mention the leadership of Mayor Paul Pisasale on this and the hard work of Deputy Mayor Victor Atwood to make it happen. It certainly was not easy, but it was worth doing—that was one of the key messages I got out of it.

What is really important, what is maybe more important than a lot of the things that have been said about the apology, is that this really is an opportunity and a point in time where a lot of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, can move on, where the debate can move on and where there is some sort of finality to one chapter so we can write a new one. I think that is very, very important. Now it is about dealing with those other issues. Now it is about dealing with bridging the gap on life expectancy; we have heard details of just how atrocious that is. It is now about trying to deal with the real issue of health care and the gap in terms of healthcare provision for Indigenous Australians and other Australians. It is now about bridging the gap in educational standards, in opportunity, in careers, in quality of life, in all the other things that we just take for granted and in that sense of belonging and feeling that you are at home.

I am sure that migrants to this country would understand exactly what I mean when I say ‘feeling you are at home’, because feeling at home is not so much a case of where you were born. It is like the old saying: home is where you hang your hat. For a lot of Australians—in fact, all Australians that are not originally Australian—the sense of feeling at home is about knowing that you belong; it is about where you hang your hat; it is about having pride in your country; it is about feeling that you are part of your country. To me, the sense of belonging, of empowering people, of giving them the opportunities to move beyond a certain point, is exceptionally significant.

The act of apology that this parliament took is not the first—so we should not kid ourselves that somehow we were the very first—but I would say it is the most significant. While we follow in the footsteps of state governments that have already apologised, there was never going to be a true apology, I felt, until it came from the Commonwealth, from the national parliament, from us, so I am very proud that took place.

I have got to congratulate the Prime Minister, because what he did was a courageous thing. It showed real leadership; it was about nation building and it was about decency. They are the key elements, to me, of what this was about. It was simple enough, yet it took so long to happen. What is truly amazing is that it has taken more than 100 years for us to finally decide to make the hardest decision of all, the decision that just seemed to be impossible. For many years we heard every possible excuse, but that is all they were: excuses from people that were too weak and lacked the courage to make what seemed like such a hard decision. In the end, if we reflect back now, it just seems so easy, so natural, such a part of something that we should all have done a long, long time ago.

I would just like to finish with a couple of thoughts. One is that it took us more than a hundred years to get to this point of making an apology. Let it not take us another 100 years before we bridge the gap on health, education and opportunity. Let us do something significant about those issues as well. What this apology clearly does—and this is why I support it so strongly—is to right the wrongs of the past and to set a path to the future for true reconciliation, for the building of goodwill and for a new beginning for both Indigenous people and all other Australians. Today I want to record my great pleasure in supporting the apology. As I said before, sometimes what seem to be the hardest things in the world to do turn out to be the easiest. (Time expired)

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