Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak on the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (Facilitation) Bill 2021 and related bill, I start by outlining the sadness and the empathy that I feel for anyone who has been subjected to wrongdoing on the level of the stolen generations and/or anyone who has been or continues to be subjected to child-sexual abuse of any sort, no matter what the type, no matter how severe or for how long or by whom. My heart goes out to those Australians who have been in that situation and who may, unfortunately, continue to be in that situation. I've spoken about this before in this place, and I'll continue to shine a light on this issue that stains our country, its history and, unfortunately, its future. I commend the Prime Minister on the creation of the National Centre for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and strongly support more work in this particular policy area.

I'd like to pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging of the Kombumerri, of the Yugambeh language, on the Gold Coast, who form part of my constituency. I extend my best wishes to their organisations and their families and make special mention of Rory O'Connor, the CEO of the local Yugambeh Museum. The Yugambeh lands stretch from the Tweed to the Logan rivers—significantly larger than the Moncrieff electorate—taking in all of the boundaries.

I'd like to share a story about a local Indigenous elder, Patricia O'Connor, before I get into the nuts and bolts of the bill. The source of the story is from the Yugambeh Museum itself, so I'm confident that it is accurate. Her journey has been from a childhood in a tent home outside of Beaudesert all the way to Buckingham Palace for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Mrs O'Connor was born in Beaudesert in 1928 and has been honoured for her role as the joint founder of the Kombumerri Aboriginal Corporation for Culture Centre in 1984. She was also part of a team which successfully negotiated Australia's largest repatriation of Aboriginal remains in 1987. She helped with the reburying ceremony of 200 Aboriginal people who had, sadly, been excavated from their original burial site at Merrimac in my electorate, by the University of Queensland in the 1960s. She also opened the Yugambeh Museum, Language and Heritage Research Centre in Beenleigh, in the member for Forde's electorate, which is one of Australia's largest language centres. Of course, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games mascot Borobi, the big koala, which has statues all over Moncrieff and Broadbeach and at the Home of the Arts and other locations is tasked with keeping Indigenous languages alive in South-East Queensland schools. I hope that Borobi comes back as the mascot for the 2032 Olympics on the Gold Coast. Borobi certainly has my vote as a natural fit for that role.

Mrs O'Connor's community work extended to involvement in the unveiling of Australia's first memorial to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women in 1991. Before COVID hit, I joined her and the local Aboriginal community on Indigenous Diggers Remembrance Day to honour those who have fallen in the wars. We thank them for their service to our great country. The memorial stone is on a bora ground just outside Moncrieff, at Burleigh Heads.

I see that I am going to be wound up shortly, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I will probably go into continuance for tomorrow. So what I will do is just keep going for a few more minutes until we go to the adjournment debate. But I wanted to share with the House a good news story in terms of the attitude that Patricia has towards the future and the hope that she has for Indigenous Australians and, of course, the future of Aboriginal children in our country and how much she has given to our community, how much she has given to the Indigenous community and how very pleased I have been to hear some of the words from Patricia, which I will talk about in continuance, when she talks about her hope for reconciliation, her hope for the future of our country and her hope for the relationship between the rest of Australia and Indigenous Australians across our great country. I thank the House for listening to my speech thus far. Thanks so much to Patricia O'Connor, who has served our community for so many years. It is a great story that I will share with the House in the next section of my speech.

See this speech in context