Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to make a contribution to this debate on the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2017. I know that my colleagues, both on this side of the House and on the other side of House, have addressed most of the issues that we would want to address in terms of the needs of these victims of the nuclear test decisions, taken by a government so long ago, but for which they are wearing the consequences. It is absolutely true that we need to make sure that their interests are properly looked after and protected, and, most importantly, that they get the support they most properly need.

I note that the Australian Participants in British Nuclear Tests (Treatment) Act 2006 currently provides Australian nuclear participants with testing and treatment for malignant cancers. Under these changes, of course, as we have been told, a broader range and class of civilians and Australian veterans would be eligible to receive treatment. In addition to those veterans, pastoralists and Aboriginal people in the vicinity of the nuclear test areas, other civilians who were present in those areas during the relevant period will be covered.

I want to spend a few moments to talk about the Yankunytjatjara people who were the subject of being removed from their country, as they were in those days. There was no real recognition of Aboriginal interests or Aboriginal rights, and, sadly for us, that meant that many of these people in the area of Maralinga and the Emu Junction area became victims of these tests. I want to refer to one man, who is a very good friend of mine and someone I have known since the late 1970s, Yami Lester. Yami is a Yankunytjatjara man who was born, I think, a little before me, although probably not too much before me. In the 1950s he was blinded by a black mist from the south. After this mist passed, and he was a young Aboriginal man living with his family, his family experienced sudden deaths, outbreaks of skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhoea and temporary and permanent blindness. Yami, sadly, suffered the consequences of this and became blind. Yami tells us that some of the people were so weak they could not go down to the nearby waterhole and skim the black scum off the water which came from the black cloud, and actually died of thirst.

It is generally accepted that this mist came as a result of the nuclear tests—the Emu Junction tests and the Maralinga tests—which were taking place at the time. I have known Yami because he is an advocate and a leader for the Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara communities of the southern part of the Northern Territory and the northern part of South Australia. He has been active, and it was, almost certainly, his activity that led to the recognition of the impact of these atomic bomb tests, particularly at Maralinga, and to an acknowledgement that Aboriginal people had been adversely affected. Remember, these people had been shoved off their land. Their land was stolen from them for the purposes of a foreign nation, in partnership with us, holding controlled nuclear tests on the land. Is it any wonder that they were concerned about the impact?

His actions most certainly helped lead to the McClelland royal commission in 1985, which found significant radiation hazards still existed at the Maralinga test sites. Recommendations included group compensation for the Maralinga and Tjarutja people and an extensive long-term clean-up operation to restore the land.

Minister Tehan, who is at the table—and I thank him for being here—on ABC radio, on Q&A, said in relation to this legislation we are talking about this morning: 'The measure will provide gold cards to Indigenous people present at or near Maralinga, Emu Field or the Montebello Islands at the time of the British nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s.'

Minister, I thank you for that. But sadly, I am standing here as a former minister and as a member of governments who over the period really failed to recognise, apart from in the Maralinga royal commission, the personal impact that this has had on individuals and families. For that I am sorry. As Yami has said, blinded by the atomic test himself, his family and extended family suffering immeasurably as a result of these bomb tests: 'This support comes 60 years too late … Most of our people have passed away. They were young ones then. Now they are older ones, a few of them still living today' So the benefit will be limited to the extent of the numbers of Aboriginal people it will impact upon, and that is a worry. It is significant that Yami said: 'Our people were sick, very sick. They were on the lands, they needed help. They're doing it too late. They didn't do compensation before, early. They didn't do it.' Yami's daughter, Karina, whom I know very well, and who is active in fighting against the possibility of nuclear waste dumps in South Australia, has said: 'Why now? This was recommended by the royal commission into the British nuclear tests in the 1980s. It is too late for those who have passed, but I am pleased to those who are still alive.'

It is very difficult, for me particularly, because I have lived and worked in the Pitjantjatjara lands with the Yankunytjatjara Pitjantjatjara people, and I know families who are directly affected by these bomb tests, including Yami and his family. They are right. This is 60 years too late. I apologise, because as a member of this parliament I should have been advocating a lot more strongly than I have done for their cause. I pay tribute to the minister for at last cooperating in recognition of their suffering. Whilst we are talking about the veterans—and I pay my great respect to those veterans who are impacted by these bomb tests—I cannot let pass the opportunity to try and get people to understand the absolutely horrific impacts these bomb tests had on the Aboriginal people of South Australia. I suspect there may be a few people who will be properly recognised in terms of treatments as a result of this legislation, but absolutely nothing we can do here will ever alleviate the pain and suffering of those who have passed, and their families who have felt that in an ongoing way.

Minister, I am thankful for the legislation. I am so sad that it has taken 60 years for us to at last recognise the health impact this has had on the Yankunytjatjara Pitjantjatjara people of South Australia. To understand this and to know that country as I do is to understand that it is about not only the physical health but the mental wellbeing and the social and emotional wellbeing of a group of people whose rights and interests were totally ignored by the governments of the day. Whilst they have been recognised subsequently—thankfully—it is a lesson to us about why it is important to listen to the voices of Aboriginal people when it comes to understanding the history of this country.

See this speech in context