Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commence my remarks by acknowledging the traditional owners and I thank them for their continuing stewardship. I do that deliberately because six years ago today we did that for the very first time in this building. Even though this building has been around for 19-odd years, and there had been the opening of Old Parliament House, a welcome to country has never been performed in this building. The very first thing I did in this building as a parliamentarian was to observe the welcome to country given to us by Matilda House and her community. It was quite heart-warming to see. She actually told the story that when Old Parliament House was first opened, one of her ancestors had been in attendance but was not allowed to participate in the ceremony. They were on the fringes of the ceremony, but were not allowed to participate. So, six years ago today—I remember it was a rainy day—she made the point of how it was righting a wrong. Having the welcome to country delivered to us was quite moving.

After that first event and before parliament started, we then moved into the historic event that I have to say, sadly in a way, was my best day and favourite day in parliament. I am referring to the apology delivered by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It was truly one of the most moving events in the history of Australia, I would suggest. It was an event that in hindsight becomes more and more poignant and more and more significant. I recognise the magnificent speeches delivered yesterday by Prime Minister Abbott and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten. Both were magnificent speeches that should be read by everybody.

The apology delivered by Kevin Rudd was written mainly by him. Obviously, Minister Macklin, as she was then, did a lot of the groundwork, along with many other people, but the words were primarily penned by Kevin Rudd, by his own hand. They were magnificent words, words that echoed around the world. His words, in some way, strangely, secured our vote on the Security Council, because countries saw that event. It was an international phenomenon. Those words—mere words, I know—on that day six years ago, spoke of an Australia that was noble and committed to fairness and justice, and perhaps to righting some wrongs.

Words and symbols mean nothing if there is no action. That is why I commend Prime Minister Abbott and Prime Minister Gillard before him, and Prime Minister Rudd, for not just recognising the event, but turning words into actions. Noble thoughts mean nothing if there are not noble deeds connected to it.

In the short time we have, I will touch on some of the other significant events that have occurred. About 50 years ago, in August 1963, a petition was delivered to the Australian Parliament. It was on a pair of bark paintings and was signed by the clan leaders of the Yolngu region, in the Gove peninsula—an area that is having significant challenges at the moment because of the refinery closing down. Obviously there have been lots of petitions sent to Australian parliaments by Aboriginal people, but this was the first one that combined the traditional form of a the bark painting with text typed on paper. It is interesting to see where it is kept. If you come to parliament house, I recommend that you go and see it, because it is right alongside the Magna Carta and the Australian Constitution. The Australian Constitution is the actual one signed by Queen Victoria. Australia as a nation was formed by Queen Victoria, in London, signing off on an act passed in Westminster by the United Kingdom parliament.

These bark petitions are now considered founding documents, up there with the Magna Carta and the Australian Constitution in terms of the tradition of recognising what we are as a nation. It is significant. Other petitions were handed on, but they do not have the same status in terms of being founding documents. Petitions were handed up in 1935 and 1937. But do you know what the response of the parliament of the day was? Absolutely nothing, as in: we do not have to respond to that. In fact the way the Aboriginal community was ignored led to Aborigines from all around Australia establishing a national Aboriginal day observance committee, or NADOC, and they later added the Torres Straight Islanders to make it NAIDOC. It is an event that is still celebrated throughout Australia every year. In fact, I make sure I sure I go to the event in Acacia Ridge in my electorate. People from the Murray school in my electorate, and some of the other communities, come along.

So, symbolism is very important. One of the other significant Indigenous symbols—and we have all seen it on television—was the occasion when Gough Whitlam was pouring sand into the hands of the people who had been fighting for land rights.in their communities during the 1966 Gurindji strike for equal pay. The strike went on for a long time. Then we had the 1960 referendum, which was a significant time, when nearly nine out of 10 Australians said we should recognise indigenous Australians and not treat them as fauna, as the Constitution suggested. Even though that strike went on for eight years—and you have heard about it if you have ever heard the song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody; From Little Things, Big Things Growthat movement, something symbolic, went on to achieve some change. In fact, some might say you could draw a line from that event through to the recognition, in June 1992, by the High Court of the fact that white settlement in Australia occurred on black land. There had been a long tradition, and that is why the traditional owners have such a significant statement now, and claim, and interaction with people who want to use their land.

I particularly mention that song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody because I included another of their songs in the foreword to my book—and I assure members I am not going to quote from my book, but I will quote from their song This Land is Mine:

This land is mine

All the way to the old fence line

Every break of day

I'm working hard just to make it pay

If you have seen the film clip, you will know that the white settler is singing that verse. Then we have the response from the Indigenous voice:

This land is me

Rock, water, animal, tree

They are my song

My being here where I belong

I think this song by Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly, This Land is Mine, captures that dynamic around what we are about as a nation. We have to recognise Indigenous history. It is the oldest continuous culture on the globe, with stories that go back far enough to recognise the ice age in Victoria—there are Indigenous tribes that talk about the ice age and have song-stories recognising the ice age. Then history is combined with white arrivals and the challenges that they bring, and this history is not to be rewritten in terms of history wars. We will never have true reconciliation as a nation until we have a Constitution that recognises that history and tradition—and I commend Prime Minister Abbott for recommitting to that process of consultation, engagement, education and, hopefully in the time of this parliament, recognition through a referendum by the Australian people of our true history. So the document signed by Queen Victoria in July 1900, as it then was, will truly reflect the bright, optimistic Australia of the future. Obviously, I hope that will be a bipartisan process wholeheartedly supported by both sides of the chamber.

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