Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

From 27 May until 3 June is National Reconciliation Week. We are in the midst of this important recognition of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Australian society and culture. Of course, 27 May is the anniversary of the 1967 referendum, which saw 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to recognise them in the census. Through this, the people of Australia deleted section 127 from our Constitution, which stated that Aborigines were not to be counted in the reckoning of the Australian population. To date, this has been our nation's most successful referendum with 90 per cent of Australians voting in almost every state to remove those discriminatory provisions. The question succeeded in all six states.

Wednesday, 3 June will be the anniversary of the handing down in 1992 of the Mabo decision by the High Court of Australia. This decision, of course, overruled the notion of terra nullius—the British convention that the land of Australia was not populated, settled or inhabited by the Aboriginal people prior to British colonisation. Legal recognition of Indigenous land rights and, eventually, native title was granted to the Aboriginal people. It was the Keating government, in the wake of the 1992 Mabo decision, that legislated for Mabo, its principles and the notion of native title. I can recall following that particular debate in Australian politics as a university student. The vehement opposition to the notion of native title, from the conservative side of politics in Australia—particularly from the National Party and the National Farmers Federation—was, I think, absurd. It is pleasing to see that the notion of native title is now well accepted and well constituted in Australian law and Australian society.

Moving on from 1992, we saw further progress in 2008 with the apology to the stolen generation, which was made by the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the difference that that made in terms of the position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Finally recognising, through our nation's parliament, and saying sorry for the historic wrong that was done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly taken from their families through government policy, was an important step forward for our nation and an important part of the healing process. In the wake of that, the Labor government developed the notion of closing the gap—a gap which, unfortunately, is still too wide in our society. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lag behind the rest of the Australian population in a number of important indicators. We do need to focus and have more work on that, if we are to be successful there.

The former Labor Gillard government also took the first step in the important approach to recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution by constituting an inquiry and an expert panel to look into the notion of recognising Indigenous Australians in our nation's principal document. On National Reconciliation Week, it is important that we highlight how important constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is to Indigenous Australians, and how important it is that we work, and do more, to close the gap when it comes to life expectancy, rates of incarceration, and education and health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is also important that we highlight the Abbott government's cuts to Indigenous health and legal services, and the detrimental effects that they are having on the Aboriginal population in Australia.

In terms of constitutional recognition, the Gillard government, in 2010, established the expert panel. The expert panel spent over 12 months working with Australians, publishing a discussion paper and conducting 84 public consultations throughout the country on the best way to recognise the contribution, heritage and culture of Aboriginal Australians in our nation's principal document from Federation. In January 2012, the expert panel published their report. They made a number of important recommendations, including that section 25 of the Constitution be repealed and that section 51(xxvi) also be repealed. They also recommended the insertion of a new section 51A which recognises: the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Australia; acknowledges their continuing relationship with the traditional lands and waters; respects their continuing culture, language, heritage and peoples; and acknowledges the need to secure the advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This, of course, spawned the RECOGNISE movement. I want to congratulate all of those associated with RECOGNISE for the wonderful work that they have been doing to highlight the importance of constitutional recognition to Australia's maturity and to recognising the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In the wake of that report, the parliament established a joint select committee to work in a multipartisan manner on the process of getting us to a referendum on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition in our Constitution. I think momentum on that halted a little bit during the earlier times of the Abbott government, but in this Reconciliation Week I think it is time that we do try and reignite passion for constitutional recognition. The joint committee—which has been wonderfully chaired by Ken Wyatt—published an interim report in July 2014 and a progress report in October 2014.

The first recommendation of the October 2014 report is that both houses of parliament, the House and the Senate, set aside a full day of sittings to concurrently debate the recommendations of the joint select committee as set out in the report and to focus the mind of the parliament, and the people of Australia through the parliament, on this important issue. The joint select committee also made some recommendations in respect of the expert panel—I will not go into those.

I think constitutional recognition is important. It is widely accepted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have the longest continuing culture and connection with this land in the world, and that is something that Australians should be proud of. That is something that we should be celebrating. We certainly should be recognising that in our nation's founding document, our Constitution. When you think about that connection with the land that the Aboriginal people have had with the Australian continent for so long, it is almost unbelievable that we do not recognise that—because other nations do and other nations are very proud of the role that their indigenous people have played in the development of their homelands. I point of course to New Zealand, with the Treaty of Waitangi, and also to the United States and indeed Canada.

Recognition that Australia was settled by the Aboriginal people prior to colonisation is very, very important. In my community, many of our suburbs and our beaches are named after significant figures in Aboriginal heritage and history and derive their names from Aboriginal cultural and language—testament to the fact that Australia was settled prior to British colonisation.

In conclusion, can I recognise a number of local events, including the corroboree that took place in Coogee, and thank Randwick City Council, Youth Off The Streets and the Soldiers' Settlement Public School for celebrating Reconciliation Week in our community and highlighting the importance of Indigenous culture and recognition.

See this speech in context