Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging the Ngunawal people and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging. I pay tribute to Minister Wyatt, shadow minister Burney, Senator Patrick Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Jacqui Lambie and Senator Lidia Thorpe, who have brought their commitment and passion to making a positive difference to our national parliament. I welcome members of the stolen generations who have joined us here today. We are humbled by your presence.

In the 13 years since it was delivered by Kevin Rudd, the Apology to the Stolen Generations has in retrospect taken on a sense of inevitability, but it was anything but inevitable. It was resisted for years. It was resisted on the day itself by some members of this place, who walked out, rather than being part of this moment of national significance and atonement. When history was made in this room, they chose to be in another. It is almost unimaginable now, but, at the time, it was dressed up as an expression of principle, of courage. The real courage, of course, was of those members of the stolen generations who came to this place, here, which had long stood as a pinnacle of an entire system that had failed them, as governments of all persuasions had. Each year, when the anniversary falls, as we vow to narrow the chasm, which we so gently call a 'gap', we are reminded of all of the unfinished business that surrounds us, business that is spelt out in an unflinching litany of lopsided statistics. These statistics have this year been delayed. The truth is that no government can proclaim that it has got all of these issues right. We have all failed.

Meanwhile, the Uluru Statement from the Heart places before us an invitation to go further. Let us have the voice to parliament, because the denial of a constitutionally enshrined voice is a denial of the Australian instinct for a fair go. But the voice will be nothing without truth-telling—truth that must fill the holes in our national memory. I spoke recently at the War Memorial about those Indigenous Australians who donned the khaki and fought for a nation that was not prepared to fight for them. They fought for a continent for which their own people had fought during the frontier wars, wars we have not yet learnt to speak of so loudly. They, too, died for their loved ones. They, too, died for their country. We must remember them just as we remember those who fought more recent conflicts. It must all be a part of our reckoning with the truth. Without it, we cannot be whole. 'Makarrata', that powerful Yolngu word, means coming together after a conflict. A makarrata commission as outlined in the Uluru statement would oversee a national process of truth-telling, agreement and treaty making.

The anniversary of the apology also demands we look to the removal of Indigenous children going on now. Last year's Family matters report points to a troubling trend. Put together by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, it tells us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children represent 37.3 per cent of the total population of all children removed from their parents, but they represent just six per cent of our total child population. Just think about that. Between 2013 and 2019, the rate at which those children have been placed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers actually fell from 53.6 per cent to 43.8 per cent. If we don't address this, those gaps, not least in mental health and incarceration rates, will only widen and we will have the makings of another apology in the future.

There are many areas that fall to the states, but the federal government have the responsibility to do our part. As the Uluru statement puts it, when we have power over our destiny, our children will flourish. On the day of the apology, Mick Dodson wrote about the false divide between the symbolic and practical aspects of reconciliation. Mick wrote:

The reality is that how you feel about yourself, and whether you feel your culture and your history is acknowledged and respected is a key part of facing your problems and being able to turn things around.

In this spirit, Labor extends the hand of bipartisanship in support of a referendum on constitutional recognition this term, which is what Minister Wyatt committed to at the National Press Club on 10 July 2019. Let's not keep kicking this down the road.

Labor's support is based on just two conditions: that the proposal is supported by First Nations people and that it is consistent with the Uluru statement. Let it be worthy of the grace that we saw in 2008. On that extraordinary day 13 years ago, as the Prime Minister has said, Aunty Lorraine Peeters, who I had the honour of meeting on that day, a member of the stolen generations, presented Prime Minister Rudd with a glass coolamon, and she said, 'We have a new covenant between our peoples.' Let us commit to extending that covenant. We have what it takes. Let us get it right and then let's get it done.

We have a great country, but an even greater nation is within our reach. We have the chance to again make history. Let us not go looking for a way out but instead embrace a way forward together. It has been identified for us in the beautiful, extraordinary and remarkably generous Uluru Statement from the Heart. Opening our hearts to advance this agenda will enrich all of us, just as we are all diminished by our national Constitution not recognising the privilege of living with the oldest continuous civilisation on earth.

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