Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to join with my parliamentary colleagues in making further comments in relation to the Closing the gap report for 2018. This week in the parliament has been monumental so far. On Monday we saw the Closing the gap report delivered and this morning in the Great Hall we had the breakfast and the coming together of many people from the stolen generations for the 10th anniversary of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations.

The apology was a truly remarkable and historic moment for our nation. It acknowledged the painful truth and injustice of the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the destruction of our families, communities and cultures. It also recognised that while these injustices happened in the past the impact is still with us. Intergenerational trauma is becoming more and more understood, and it is very much a part of this discussion.

At the breakfast this morning there were stories, as there are with every gathering of the stolen generations, on painful display, stories about the indignity and the humiliation that members of the stolen generations were made to feel but also stories about their incredible strength and resilience and the amazing generosity of that generation. I think that is a lesson that we can all well take on board. People were taught to be ashamed of their Aboriginality, and they were often lied to about their family and family circumstances. We heard that today. We heard about how separation affected people—not only individuals and families but whole communities—and how, as I said, the vicious cycle of intergenerational pain and humiliation has impacted young people today.

We can see this in the overrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in incarceration or out-of-home care. In fact, my side of the parliament argues that there should be two new additional targets: one in relation to incarceration and the other in relation to out-of-home care. The gap that alarmed me most was the gap that still exists in literacy and numeracy, and the fact that it's not going to be met. I think that that and the school attendance gaps are the real story out of this particular report. And when you start to unpack how the numbers were arrived at and the way in which the calculations were made as to what was on track and what wasn't, you start to get even more questions about the accuracy of the report.

The apology 10 years ago was a great national effort to close the gap but it is also everyone's business. It was also part of the journey towards healing and part of the journey towards reconciliation. I have always maintained that reconciliation is not a destination; in fact, it's a journey. This is about the acknowledgement of this journey and how long it will continue for, and what the tangible, practical and meaningful steps towards closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians actually require.

The report the Prime Minister delivered on Monday clearly said that there is so much more to do. I find it rather galling at times when we say we've made such big efforts; we've made such big gains. Well, let's remind ourselves just how low the bar is. Of course, the progress for year 12 completion, early childhood participation and mortality rate improvements are welcomed, but they are still way below those of the broader Australian community. It is also disappointing to still see that the progress in life expectancy, employment, school attendance, and literacy and numeracy outcomes are not going to be met. It is almost incredulous when I speak to people from other countries and say that my life expectancy as a first-nation woman is much less than it is for my non-Aboriginal sisters. It is difficult to understand in a First World nation like ours, a wealthy nation like ours, how this situation can still exist.

We also know that we need to listen and we need leadership. The Labor Party have said to the government, in a very, very real way, that we will work with you but we will not wait with you. We have made the point, although it has been denied, that there has been half a billion dollars cut out of the Indigenous Affairs program, and there are consequences of that that many of us see in our daily lives as members of parliament.

I do want to emphasise in the little bit of time I have left the proposed cuts to the remote housing program. If these funds are cut, if this effort is not renewed with the states and territories, then we may as well not even print a Closing the Gap report next year, because it will make a mockery of the whole idea of closing the gap. One of the important things is this notion of self-determination, which was clearly one of the recommendations in the Bringing them home report. Self-determination is at the heart of closing the gap; self-determination is at the heart of much of the rhetoric of both sides of parliament in this place. Self-determination can be realised by way of an Indigenous voice to this parliament. We want to work with the government on this, and I was very disappointed to hear the Prime Minister's statements in the House today in light of this.

Last night, I attended the screening of a film about the alarming rates of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. It is just incredulous, and I know each side of politics agrees wholeheartedly with this. It is difficult to accept. We understand that the states are the jurisdictions that basically look after child protection, but the number of children in out-of-home care has doubled in the last 10 years. One of the women last night said there is not a new Stolen Generation but that the Stolen Generation has never finished.

I have spoken about many things today and I'm not going to be able to speak about everything that I wanted to, but I did want to say that I am very proud of Labor's story when it comes to Indigenous policy. We will never forget that image of Gough Whitlam pouring sand into the hands of Vincent Lingiari at the handover of Uluru, of the Whitlam government's abolishment of discriminatory practices perpetrated against Aboriginal Australians. We also know that we look at the Keating government's passage of native title and also the Mabo decision. Keating's Redfern statement is something that will sear into the heart of this country forever. I know some of you were here at the time, but I was in the gallery, actually, when Kevin Rudd made the apology to the Stolen Generations. We, today, make an ongoing commitment to the Stolen Generations by way of a $10 million fund and also reparations when it comes to the ACT, the Northern Territory and other federal jurisdictions. We will also have a first-nations children's summit within the first 100 days of forming government if Labor is elected.

I will finish my comments today to this chamber by saying that it is critical that there be a mechanism put in place. We're not talking about a third chamber; we are talking about an advisory committee to this parliament, made up of first nations peoples from across the country, to make sure that the decisions that we make within this parliament will truly contribute to the realisation of closing the gap and the aspirations in the Bringing them home report. As I said, we are prepared to work with the government in a very real way, and Labor, as a first step to ultimately recognising the first nations voice, will do some preliminary work around what that voice might look like.

I finish by saying we are confident that, in the fullness of time, the Australian public will see that this is an important mechanism within the parliament and something that we can all embrace. This, too, will not be easy, but Labor has listened and Labor now stands ready to lead. We ask the Prime Minister and the government to do the same thing.

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