Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like others, I recognise the fine and powerful words made by all my Labor colleagues and the independent member for Indi in this debate that I have listened to today. I feel very moved by what people have said, and I join with them in recognition of country. The happenings in this parliament yesterday were very important and very inspirational but, as many have said, at the same time very sobering. It was the release of the ninth Closing the gap report and also, of course, the ninth year of the recognition of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations. I am so pleased the member for Lalor mentioned that speech in Redfern Park by Paul Keating. I was actually there in the audience that day, and I just remember sitting there with hundreds and hundreds of Aboriginal people and our mouths dropping open at listening to the Prime Minister say those things. It was an astounding day and something that will always stay with me as well.

There were two really significant points of the Leader of the Opposition's speech yesterday, which was a speech that was made in a very collaborative way with particularly the Indigenous members of this place but I am sure others as well. Firstly, there was the recognition of the number of Aboriginal children who are being removed as a result of statutory child protection measures. Barnaby Joyce was on the radio this morning saying: 'If kids are in danger they have to be removed, and that's that. It's not about what colour you are.' But there are different ways, and Labor committed yesterday to working with the national peak body, SNAICC, in finding what those different ways are. We know that it is state governments that basically run the child protection system, but the federal government also has a number of possible levers in this space as well. That number of children projected to be removed by 2020 is just horrendous. There are 15,000 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care now, and it is looking like that number done by the good work of people particularly in Victoria will double by the year 2020. The proportion, of course, we heard people speak about a little earlier.

The other point that was made by Labor yesterday was in fact in relation to reparations. The point was made that of course reparations should be made to children who have been mistreated particularly by the state, and by that I mean governments as well as other institutions. We are seeing this writ large, of course, with the royal commission that is underway at the moment. A number of states have already entered into reparation schemes with members of the Stolen Generations, and we are signalling very strongly that Labor is also going to have a look at reparations. I think the point made by one of our earlier speakers was that this is really what reconciliation is about. Those two points are very important.

Of course, the other thing that is really significant is that the things that we are talking about, particularly with the apology, are things in our lifetime. This is not ancient history. I will be 60 next birthday, and when I was a child the policies of removal were very real. For people in this chamber also those policies were very real. In fact, some of them did not finish until the early seventies. So we are talking about very recent history and we are talking about history, if not in our lifetimes, certainly in our parents' lifetimes.

In the Labor caucus yesterday a wonderful ceremony was conducted by Malarndirri McCarthy. I had a very small role to play in that. But the speech that was given by Patrick Dodson really outlined and made us all proud, as Labor representatives, of the things that we had done under various prime ministers, including the great Gough Whitlam: the Gurindji walk-off from Wave Hill with Vincent Lingiari—his mob are the Gurindji people—and, of course, the hand-back of Uluru. There was the '67 referendum, of course, and native title. Those things were listed, but Pat also put a challenge in front of us as Labor but also in front of us as the parliament: the time for listening is here, but it is also a time for action. I think that very much centred on us.

I will say something that maybe was not said yesterday and I think today is the day to say. When you have a look at this government's record under Prime Minister Howard, Prime Minister Abbott and now Prime Minister Turnbull in the Aboriginal space, it is important that we make the point that, under Prime Minister Howard, the refusal to acknowledge the Stolen Generations, the refusal to say sorry was not just something that hurt Aboriginal people; it hurt this country. It held this country back. I well remember the walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and that plane up in the sky, skywriting 'sorry'. I remember the way in which the Howard government turned in on itself and turned the Australian people in on themselves through the actions of Pauline Hanson and the white picket fence, revisionist view of history. We have got to remember those things.

Of course, under Prime Minister Abbott we had the establishment of a hand-picked group of Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people that would provide advice without accountability, without any understanding from the broader community about what the agenda of that group was. It has been a very difficult exercise. Under the Prime Minister we also saw the abolition of ATSIC and the destruction of any Aboriginal national representation.

We also saw under Prime Minister Abbott—continued, unfortunately, by Prime Minister Turnbull—a ripping out of millions and millions of dollars of the Aboriginal affairs budget, and the rearrangement of the way in which Aboriginal affairs would be administered and funded has seen advocacy bodies destroyed. It has seen Aboriginal organisations from right across the country, including Aboriginal children and families centres, defunded. And the government then has the nerve to blame Aboriginal people for what appear to be things going backwards.

The other thing is that to address the issues that the Closing the gap report highlighted yesterday is actually an important economic imperative for Australia. If you have Aboriginal people graduating and taking up employment, and the issues of Aboriginal incarceration and a whole range of other issues are addressed, the saving for the budget would be substantial. It just astounds me that that cannot be understood by bureaucrats and by members of the government, because it is very much understood by Labor on this side of the House.

The other thing that Labor made very clear yesterday, and will continue to make very clear and advocate for, is support for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the democratically elected representative body that should be the chief advisory, consultation and negotiation group with any sensible government. They are representative, they are experienced and they are there. It has been this government that has defunded that group. They are almost on their knees, and Labor's commitment is to being a partner with a representative, democratically elected group, and that group is congress.

I will just finish up by saying that I am very touched and lifted up by my colleagues, and I think that the future of where we go in the Aboriginal space is very bright for Labor in this country.

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