Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my colleague who has just spoken for his contribution and all those other people who have involved themselves in this debate on National Sorry Day—the members for Hasluck, Moreton, Leichhardt, Griffith, Murray, Blair and Canberra. I firstly acknowledge the Ngunawal traditional owners of this country on which we are meeting. It is my own birthplace, by the way. Ngunawal country is something I must say I did not know a lot about as a kid, but I have learnt a lot about it since.

Last week we celebrated National Sorry Day, a day that meant so much to all Australians. Its significance is recognised each year and the momentum is building to better the lives of members of the stolen generations, their families and their communities. We remember the apology, initiated by the member for Griffith when Prime Minister, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It was delivered on 13 February 2008. In the years that I have been in the parliament, and there have been a lot of them, I cannot think of a prouder day than the day that we issued that national apology, and I want to thank the member for Griffith for that initiative and for the way in which he delivered what was a very fine speech. I think the sentiments in it epitomised the feelings of all the people in the parliament and I am very pleased to have been there that day. I have many friends from the stolen generations who were also present and I know what it meant to them.

On National Sorry Day last year, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Ms Macklin, and I launched the Stolen generations working partnership. This seeks to harness the efforts of government and non-government organisations in supporting members of the stolen generations to heal the grief of past practices of forcible removal. While much has already been done towards achieving the priorities outlined in the document, there is still much to do.

The Australian government acknowledges the importance of ongoing advocacy of the stolen generations. Part of demonstrating this is the acknowledgement of the recently released National Sorry Day Committee scorecard. The scorecard is a measure of progress in the first 12 months of operation of the Stolen generations working partnership. I am pleased to commit to ongoing dialogue with the stolen generations. We welcome their engagement in the planning and implementation of future activities. I know a lot of people who are members of the stolen generations and their families. Their stories, as we all know from what was said in the parliament the day that the Prime Minister gave the apology, are heart wrenching. People were taken away from their parents. In the case of people from Central Australia, many were taken to Croker Island, off the coast of the Northern Territory, never to return. Or they were taken to other places, Bathurst and Melville Island and other parts of the Northern Territory, never to return. When they have returned in later years as adults, often their parents are no longer there, and the sadness of that and what it means for all families should be obvious to all of us.

The 2011-12 budget recognises that members of the stolen generations need ongoing support for their journey of healing. The government announced the expanded investment of $54.4 million over five years to continue counselling, family tracing and reunion services for members of the stolen generations, currently provided under the Bringing Them Home and Link Up programs. In addition, the national mental health reform package provides expanded access to allied psychological services with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some $10 million will go towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific suicide prevention and mental health services under the ATAPS program over the next five years. The expansion of this program will involve funding of support services to 18,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Sorry Day is a national day of commemoration and remembrance in the Australian calendar. We recognise and acknowledge the stolen generations and all that they have endured as a result of the forced removal policies of the past. We will continue to work together to improve on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. As the Minister for Indigenous Health, I have great pleasure in talking to Aboriginal people across this country on a regular basis about how we can empower them to have greater control over their lives—in this case, through the delivery of health services. We fund nationally around 152 community controlled health organisations, and they are very fine examples of comprehensive primary health care being delivered for and by Aboriginal community controlled organisations. They have much to be proud of. But there is more to do; there is a great deal more to do. My friend here has just spoken about legal aid and the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that are before the courts and in the jail system and the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who do not get a good education and who are worried about what their next meal might be. They are the things we need to think about in this country. We need to understand that the original inhabitants, the longest-surviving culture on this planet, deserve a great deal better than they have. We need to be working with them. I say to those members of the stolen generations who have been the subject of these silly policies of the past that it is a sad indictment of the policymakers of the era that they were ever put in place in the first instance. The national apology, I hope, has helped heal some of the hurt. It will never replace family relationships. As a parent, I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have a child taken away. So I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate, although, as I have said on an earlier occasion today, this is not a debate; this is speaking to a motion across the parliament, and it is good to see the cross-party support the motion has been given.

Debate adjourned.

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