Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Last week this parliament said what was true and did what was just. When we seek to reconcile ourselves with those to whom great wrongs have been done, we must first tell the truth. We must first acknowledge what was done, because if we fail to recognise the truth there can be no reconciliation. The parliament last week collectively did just that. We recognised that great wrongs had been done, wrong policies of past parliaments and past governments, some of which intended and all of which assumed the gradual disappearance of the Aboriginal people of Australia. They were said to be a dying race. It was said that the kindest thing, the only thing, that could be done was to smooth the pillow of their passing. The stories told in the Bringing them home report are horrible to recall, horrible to relate and have traumatised many people when they have read them.

I first heard about the stolen generation long before that, some years before when I was working closely with Lowitja O’Donoghue. She told me her own story, which was new to me. I had never imagined that policies in the 20th century had been as racially based or that programs of removal of children for reasons that were racially based had been so widespread over such a long period of time. When we recognise the error of those ways, we should not be mealy-mouthed about stating them to be wrong. We did that. Wednesday last week was a very proud day to be a member of the Australian parliament. So much of what we say here is lost in the fury of partisan debate and political points scored, but last week this parliament spoke from the heart. I believe we spoke for the vast majority of Australians. We were right to say sorry and I was very proud to stand together with members of the House of Representatives from both sides in saying sorry on behalf of the parliament and on behalf of the people we represent.

Some Australians have been concerned about taking on guilt. ‘Intergenerational guilt’ is the phrase that has been used. We cannot take on the guilt of wrongs that were done by other people. Nobody can take on the guilt of a wrong done by another person. If guilt is to be imputed to the actions of others, then that guilt stands with them. What we can do is open our hearts and recognise those wrongs and recognise the errors that were made and express our empathy and compassion from the bottom of our heart. When we do that we are engaged in what Pope John Paul II once described as the purification of memory. Memory has to be respected. It has to be true. We have to recognise what was done, then we have to recognise the facts and then we have to recognise the character of what was done and provide our own moral response to it. In doing that and in saying sorry, making that apology for wrongs that were done in previous times, we build a bridge towards true reconciliation. It enables us to move on.

Just as the apology, the statement of ‘sorry’, was so meaningful, symbolic, so generous and so much from the heart, so too was the way in which it was accepted. I was as moved by the Aboriginal people in the parliament with the T-shirts carrying the word ‘Thanks’ as I was by any of the oratory from the members of parliament who spoke so eloquently on the day. That acceptance of the apology was an act of grace, and it provided the completion of that purification of memory of which the Pope spoke.

When I left the chamber and walked out into the Great Hall and the surrounds I saw so many people, but I was looking for one. I was looking for Lowitja O’Donoghue. And there she was, the woman who had told me first about the stolen generation, told me her own personal story, told me about the hurt and the sense of betrayal and the yearning for reconciliation. And there she was, at the moment when ‘sorry’ was said, when the apology was given. I will never forget that moment. I do not think any of us who were here last week will ever forget it.

In this parliament of course we represent all Australia. We represent our own constituents, but we represent all Australia. When we rise together we represent the nation that elected us. But we also come here as representatives of our own community, and I just want to record the commitment of so many people in my electorate of Wentworth, Indigenous Australians and many non-Indigenous Australians, who wrote to me and called me and urged me to support the motion. Of course, most of them knew that I did support the motion—I have been on the record about this for some time. They lent their support to the apology and told me that I had their support in saying sorry. I feel that day brought Australians together. I do not believe it carried guilt from one generation to another. I do not think that is possible. What I think it did do was carry an act of grace from our generation to the generations that were so cruelly wronged.

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