Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the privilege this morning of meeting with the national Stolen Generations Alliance, who had a breakfast at which two speakers left an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of those who were in attendance. Both were taken as young children from their mothers and adopted. One ended up in Wales, the other in London. Both, throughout their lives, realised there was something different about them because they could not see any other cultural grouping that looked anything like theirs. Throughout that period, both came to the realisation that there would come a point in their lives when they would need to backtrack and have a look at where their families were. Both described their experiences of talking to their adopted families, the support they did and did not receive and of making the journey back to Australia.

Levon, when he came back, discovered where his biological parents were and where his brothers and sisters were. His reunion was much more challenging because there was a difference—or, as he described it, a brick wall—although he has been slowly working through those challenges. Leonie, on the other hand, was fortunate that she had a sister who left a letter on her Link-Up file with all the details of who her mother, father, brothers and sisters were and a point of contact, should she ever inquire. So when she came back to Australia she was able to make contact and re-establish the linkages with her family. She struggled, but she also appreciates the fact that she is now reunited with them.

When the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology in the House, as I have said previously in this chamber, he created a healing process that was absolutely critical to this nation. It was an acknowledgement of decisions and policies that had good intent, but their unintended consequences were greater and more far-reaching in the pain and grief that they caused. I had the privilege of meeting with the boys from Kinchela Boys Home in New South Wales and heard some of their stories. When you sit and listen to the emptiness they describe in their lives within the institution, you are left with a sense of what would have been their opportunities and pathways had they been with their families and not been institutionalised or not experienced the pain that they did.

In all of the stories that I have heard or read or that have been provided to me by elders and those who have been affected by the stolen generations, including my own mother, where bitterness prevailed it is replaced by forgiveness. There is a knowledge that there was recognition by the Prime Minister and the Australian parliament that the events that occurred to them were made known to Australian society. When I travelled overseas to Europe one of the things that came up constantly was people who would say that they were pleased. When I was in the Emirates I had comments that they respected the fact that there was an acknowledgement of the first nations people. I assume that is only because of the travel and business arrangements that prevail between countries, but it was certainly acknowledged in that context.

I want to read the charter of the Ngunawal elders. This morning I was given, with some pride, the stories of the Ngunawal people who were affected by the stolen generation and who were taken. One of the things I have always respected about our people, or our mob, is that we have a tremendous capacity to forgive when challenges have beset us. We have seen those challenges as points in time but we have always negotiated and moved on from where we have been. The charter says this:

Our Unity is a journey of healing. We have taken the first big step and along the path people will join with us (and leave) but everyone is welcome.

In welcoming people, we know the following to be true:

The Stolen Generations Alliance today brought together members of the stolen generation to talk about the future and to look at the opportunities that lie ahead in this great country of ours. They talked and shared the experience of the pain. But that pain is not an inhibitor to the way they want to see the knowledge of the past, and also the knowledge of the future and the directions we take, as equally that of all Australians in concert with the people of the first nations. It is about the way in which we create the opportunities.

In their statement, the Stolen Generations Working Partnership, they talk about the priority issues, the things that they want to see change so that we never have the past repeated on any group for any reason, and about respect, dignity and understanding. I would love to see universities around this country adopt 20 members of the stolen generation so that they are able to be part of the processes of lifelong learning, to be engaged in some of the forums and discussions that will occur around Indigenous affairs and to be able to tell a chapter within the history of Australia from a point of engagement, where people can seek to understand, ask questions and have answers. I must say that I enjoy a privileged position in this House because I do have members of this parliament from all parties at different times come and ask me questions about our people, our mob. They will say sometimes, 'Can I ask you a politically incorrect question?' But to me no question is politically incorrect if you are seeking to enhance your knowledge and to increase your understanding. I think in that sense there is a beauty in having members of the stolen generation working and being part of university life, because our greatest knowledge acquisition, other than the early years of our lives, certainly comes through the tertiary institutions which so many Australians attend, including overseas students. What a rich, living, cultural history they would participate and share in.

For the members of the stolen generation, in talking about accessing services equally across all areas consistently, I would certainly support the Closing the Gap measures because they do address the very issues that the stolen generation have continually raised. One of the challenges in Closing the Gap is that it is not uniform across the nation; it is not uniform in terms of urban, rural and remote areas. Nevertheless, there is a focus on some very critical areas, but we have still have much to do. They talk about the greater awareness needed across government and non-government agencies. The former Prime Minister said, 'If we are not finding solutions to the problems then maybe there is a better way that we need to do business.' Certainly the stolen generation have put forward the proposition on several occasions that they want to be equal partners. They want to be there to help shape the future, the services and the access to what is offered to all Australians, not just through Indigenous moneys, because, as a society, in government we provide for all regardless of their location. We should ensure that there is continuity and access to government services. I deliberately use the term 'government services' because 'mainstream services' has, I think, a connotation around it, whereas any service provided by a government is provided to the citizens of that nation and that country and certainly within the jurisdictions.

They have been very strong in helping to heal those whose pain and grief is still problematic. If you want to read a piece of research that is significant and really highlights that intergenerational impact, I commend to members a report written by the Western Australian Institute of Child Health Research, under the leadership of Professor Fiona Stanley. The WA Aboriginal Child Health Survey went beyond something like 4,000 families. The last chapter of that social and emotional wellbeing publication deals with the impact on children of members of the stolen generation, and it highlights the aspect of mental illnesses and the debilitating impact that caring for somebody from the stolen generation has had on them and their likelihood of success in other areas. I know that, when we produced that chapter and provided it to the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth agency at the time asked for empirical data and evidence that our findings had some substance to them. But the report certainly showed that, when you look after somebody who has been traumatised or who has been significantly hurt, where there is both an emotional and a psychological scar both within the mind and on the heart, there are some subsequent flow-on effects from that.

I would hope that, as governments prevail for at least the next decade, we set some long-term vision around how we can reach all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. When we think that there are only 700,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, we break them into family units and that reduces the number. But, if we take the concept that 25 per cent of Aboriginal families are in working environments where the income is sustained through jobs, it means that we really have to focus on only 75 per cent. When you consider that number in the context of government services, we should alleviate those pressure points around education, justice, health and other government services, including housing. I want to acknowledge all of those members of the stolen generation. The National Stolen Generations Alliance supports the implementation of the recommendations from the Bringing them home report. The report's introduction in part states:

For individuals, their removal as children and the abuse they experienced at the hands of the authorities or their delegates have permanently scarred their lives. The harm continues in later generations, affecting their children and grandchildren.

It then goes on to say:

In no sense has the Inquiry been ‘raking over the past’ for its own sake. The truth is that the past is very much with us today, in the continuing devastation of the lives of Indigenous Australians. That devastation cannot be addressed unless the whole community listens with an open heart and mind to the stories of what has happened in the past and, having listened and understood, commits itself to reconciliation.

Walking and working together and in unity mend what was the past but build for a future that strengthens our nation.

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was William Faulkner who said: 'The past is never dead. It's not even past.' Today, we are so reminded of how apt that line is in considering the national apology. The national apology to the stolen generations on 13 February 2008 saw the Australian parliament acknowledge the pain and suffering caused by previous policies and finally say, 'We are sorry'. It is an honour for me to follow in this debate the member for Hasluck, somebody who I have a great admiration for on this issue and many others. I count myself among those in this place who has been fortunate to have benefited from his wisdom, and I hope to learn more from him during our times here.

Today is a day to remember but it is also a day to acknowledge the need for continued action to close the gaps. Today the minister launched a testimonies website, www.stolengenerationstestimonies.com. It is a moving website on which Australians can see many of the stories of people from the stolen generations—an important way of ensuring that what is past continues to be remembered for a portion of our history. I want to acknowledge today the work of the National Stolen Generations Alliance and the National Sorry Day Committee in doing so much to recognise the stolen generations.

One of the things that I would like to speak about today is the important role that education can play in closing the gaps in Australia. When I was an academic at the ANU, one of the projects I worked on was looking at the Indigenous test score gap in Australia. My co-author, Xiaodong Gong, and I found that, when Indigenous children reach school, they are on average a year behind their non-Indigenous peers but that by the end of primary school, the gap has widened to two years. That is in some sense a depressing message, because we can see Indigenous children falling behind their non-Indigenous counterparts. But, on the other hand, it is an optimistic message because schools, frankly, are easier to fix than the complexities of family background.

When I was up in Cape York as part of the House Economics Committee's inquiry, we heard much about the work that is being done in Cape York to improve schools, to take the best of what is occurring elsewhere in the world. One witness, Phyllis Yunkaporta, from Noel Pearson's Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy, told the committee:

I guess in time we have to have expectations for our children to be educated in a way where they have to balance both worlds—the Western world and the traditional way. Of course we want them to hang onto the traditional way because that is where they are going to be identifying themselves for the future. And with them having to venture out into the mainstream, we want them to compete. It is a competitive world out there. We want our black little kids to start taking on the world.

I commend to the House Noel Pearson's Quarterly Essay on education, 'Radical hope', which speaks so articulately on the importance of high standards and the importance of combining good literacy and numeracy education with high-quality cultural education as well. It is also an essay which speaks very carefully to the balance between teacher quality and curriculum, an important balance to get right in Indigenous communities, as in non-Indigenous communities.

Another form of educational investment that can help close the gaps is in the area of higher education. It was my pleasure on 7 November last year to represent the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations in presenting Indigenous higher education staff scholarships. Among the recipients of those scholarships were Ann-Maree Hammond, from the University of Southern Queensland; Luke Halvorsen, from the Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle; Catherine Taylor and Wayne Applebee, from the University of Canberra; James Charles and Elizabeth Cameron, from the University of Newcastle; Cheree Dean, from Charles Sturt University; and Jonelle Green, from La Trobe University. It was terrific for me to hear their stories and how they are helping to transform Australian higher education for the better.

On the evening, there were also awards presented to elders for their outstanding contribution to the higher education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Awards were presented to Aunty Ruth Hegarty, from the Australian Catholic University; Aunty Rosmund Miriam Graham, from Griffith University; Aunty Joan Vickery, from Monash University and the University of Melbourne; and Ms Rose Guywanga and Reverend Dr Dinyini Gondarra, from Charles Darwin University. Waymamba Gaykamangu, a retired lecturer from Charles Darwin University, was also presented with a 2010 Elders award. All of these awards are part of ensuring that Indigenous higher education is as good as it can be.

We are speaking today about Sorry Day, but I want to end with a message of optimism. One of the great things about this country is our Indigenous heritage. For me as a non-Indigenous Australian, it is a great source of pride to live in a country which has a people with the oldest continuing link to the land. We need to speak about the wrongs that have been done but we also need to speak about how great it is for us as Australians all to participate in part of that culture.

There are many Indigenous constituents of whom I am enormously proud. Peter Radoll, Director of the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre of the Australian National University, is a font of great stories about Indigenous success at the ANU. Julie Tongs, the director of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Centre, in Narrabundah, has done extraordinary work to improve the health of Indigenous people in the ACT. Mr Duncan Smith, the Wiradjuri artist who I understand carved an artwork that was presented this morning, is an amazing role model to Indigenous youth in the ACT and somebody from whom I have learned a great deal in the time that I have known him. Matilda House is a wonderful Indigenous woman who is there at so many functions in the ACT, reminding us of the importance of welcoming to country. That is a reminder which I particularly see opening the eyes of overseas visitors, who are sometimes hearing about the tradition of welcoming to country for the first time and, in the case of some US visitors, will turn around afterwards and say, 'Why don't we do more of that back home?'

So it is a day to say sorry but it is also a day to look forward with optimism to an Australia that closes the gaps and engenders a great sense of pride in our extraordinary Indigenous heritage.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Four years ago today, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his famous 'sorry speech'. His fourth sentence underlined a determination felt by many:

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

A little later in his speech, Mr Rudd spoke of:

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

While we acknowledge the momentous nature of that particular day, of most importance is what has happened to better the lives of Aboriginal people since then. Acknowledgements in this parliament are one thing but they will be seen only as empty platitudes if measures of real worth are not delivered to back up the words. Aboriginal Australians are like everybody else when it comes to the aspects of life that matter most. Above all else, they need good health services, a decent education and a roof over their heads. Staying healthy is the key to a quality life; education opens up opportunities which would otherwise not be available; and reliable, affordable housing is paramount.

The life expectancy of Aboriginal males was estimated to be 59.4 years over the period from 1996 to 2001, while the life expectancy of Aboriginal females was estimated to be 64.8 years. When compared to the life expectancy of the general Australian population, that is a life expectancy inequality gap of about 17 years in that same five-year period. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that an Aboriginal male born in the period from 2005 to 2007 could expect to live to the age of 67.2 years, or about 11½ years less than a non-Aboriginal male at that time, who could expect to live to 78.7 years. In the same period, an Aboriginal female could be expected to live to 72.9 years on average, which is almost 10 years less than a non-Aboriginal woman, who could expect to live to 82.6 years.

The infant mortality rate among the Aboriginal population is, sadly, all too high. Babies born to Aboriginal women are far more likely to die in their first year than those born to non-Aboriginal women. Between 2006 and 2008, the infant mortality rate for babies born to Aboriginal women was as high as 14 babies out of 1,000 births in the Northern Territory. In contrast, the rate for the total Australian population was 4.1 deaths per 1,000 births in 2008. Despite the 'sorry' acknowledgement, infant mortality among the Aboriginal population is, tragically, still too high.

Heart and related conditions are 1.3 times more common for Aboriginal people than for non-Aboriginal people. High blood pressure, the most commonly reported condition, is 1½ times more common. Diabetes is around 3½ times more common among Aboriginal people than among other Australians. In the period from 2002 to 2006, deaths from chronic kidney disease were seven times more common for Aboriginal males and 11 times more common for Aboriginal females than for non-Aboriginal Australians living in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Aboriginal statistics for other illnesses and diseases are far higher than for the rest of society.

Educational attainment among Aboriginal youth is, happily, improving, but far more needs to be done. The Northern Territory government's own education budget papers have targeted attendance rates at around 32 per cent for Aboriginal primary school students attending school regularly. Clearly, this is a terribly low target figure.

This government constantly talks about closing the gap. However, in some key areas very little has changed. Mr Rudd said in 2008:

I therefore propose a joint policy commission, to be led by the Leader of the Opposition and me, with a mandate to develop and implement—to begin with—an effective housing strategy for remote communities over the next five years.

That is a noble aim and ambition. However, it is a fact that Aboriginal people in many areas, including Tumut and Brungle in my electorate of the Riverina, are in desperate need of better housing. On 2 December 2011, in company with the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs, Senator Nigel Scullion, I visited Aboriginal centres in the irrigation zones of the Riverina electorate. One of those places that we visited was Tirkandi Inaburra, which means 'To learn to dream' in the Wiradjuri language. Tirkandi Inaburra is a cultural and development centre located between Darlington Point and Coleambally on a 780-hectare rural property. It is a centre offering Aboriginal boys aged between 12 and 15 years a culturally based residential program teaching them confidence, self-respect and resilience, and hopefully reducing contact with the criminal justice system. For three to six months the students engage in learning in educational, sporting, recreational and life and living skills and cultural activities which have all have been designed to incrementally develop each participant's skills and abilities. The centre, as I say, is between Coleambally and Darlington Point and is making a wonderful adjustment and change to these young boys' lives. At present, Tirkandi Inaburra is the only centre in Australia which provides such a wonderful opportunity to Aboriginal males. It is only boys who live in communities located between the Lachlan and Murray and between Balranald and the western side of the Blue Mountains who are eligible to apply to come to the centre.

More centres such as this, for both boys and girls, is what we should be promising our Aboriginal students to reach the goal of a higher percentage of graduates by 2020. As Senator Scullion said, this should be a model which should be replicated elsewhere. I quote him:

It is a tremendous concept and would make such a difference to more lives if it were established in other places.

The sorry speech was a start. Let us, as a parliament and a Commonwealth, now work towards real improvements in Aboriginal health, Aboriginal education and Aboriginal housing as a means to being genuine partners, together united towards a better future.

Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start my contribution to the debate on National Sorry Day by acknowledging that we meet here today on the land of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples and I pay my respect to the elders past and present. Doing that is not something that came naturally to my generation. We were not exposed to that through our education system. I can remember at school collecting money for the Aboriginal Advancement League. That was the only exposure that we would ever have. It is ironic that we had trainee teachers come from Papua New Guinea to our school, but indigenous affairs was not something that was front and centre in my education.

So when the amateur psychologists try to work out what was in my mind as I opened proceedings on 24 November last year before my resignation as Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the raw emotion I displayed was in response to the realisation that it was the last time that I would make that statement that now forms part of our standing orders to the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples. My son reminded me, 'Dad, at least you were the first Speaker who got to do it.' Sometimes sons have a way of looking at a glass as half full when I seem to always think it is half empty.

I was a member of this place from 1986 to 1997, and for a brief moment early on in that time, for a couple of months before an election, I was dragooned—and I mean dragooned—onto the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs. I think I attended one meeting. The electorate of Scullin had something like .03 per cent Indigenous people when I was first elected. The city of Whittlesea, which is one of the main local government units, now has the third largest Indigenous population in Victoria. So in the quarter of a century since my election, mainly due to the search for affordable housing on the urban fringe, the Indigenous population there has become much larger. But it was the Bringing them home report that was my first experience of thinking about the issues of Indigenous Australians and what they had suffered and what they had enjoyed. I do not think that we should see this as something to do with negativity. This is about being very positive and moving forward. It was this report and the reflection on what we had seen since Europeans came and started what we refer to as the 'modern Australia' that made me think that there was something that we should be doing, not only because as members of this place we are integral to the formation of government, but because each of us as individuals, I believe, is very important as a community leader. We should be showing that leadership within our communities.

In an adjournment speech, I think in June 1997, I read a few things out of the Bringing them home report. Some went back into history about what people had said in the twenties. There was also a quote from a person that went on to be a valuable member of this place, from another political party, John McEwen when he was Minister for the Interior. He visited what was known then as the Half-caste Home in Darwin in 1937. McEwen being of the land really knew what he was saying when he said:

I know many stock breeders who would not dream of crowding their stock in the way that these half-caste children are huddled.

The other thing that came home to me was when I read the story of a young man born in 1964 and I realised that he was just a little younger than my younger sister who was born in 1963. He talked about being removed from his mother and the struggles, when the records were revealed, that the mother had had in trying to make contact with the young lad. Birthday cards and Christmas cards were not delivered but were put on his file. When he discovered his mother, she was working in an institution that looked after orphaned Aboriginal children. Fortunately they had six months to enjoy getting acquainted.

Luckily for me, straight after the tabling of Bringing them home, I was a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Family and Community Affairs for the period, I think, 1998 to 2000 when we had our inquiry into Indigenous health. That was a privilege. What we saw was often horrific, because you could not believe that people living in Australia in that period should have been left behind. Some of the communities that we visited were confronting, not because they were dysfunctional but because I, a lad from the northern suburbs of Melbourne, had not been exposed to them. The people themselves, the Indigenous people, were so open in the way that they came before us and discussed the issues and solutions and the way that they saw forward.

I slightly digress as I feel obliged because I think of him often. We had as an adviser somebody who was instrumental in the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, NACCHO, the late Puggy Hunter, who travelled with us. I guess Puggy was just a little bit younger than me. He was a great person to explain what it meant being involved in Indigenous health services. One of the things that really struck me—and at that time it was not something that I had to really worry about—was when he said: 'You just get tired when you spend your time attending the funerals of people of your own age.' As I said, that was not something that I had to think about then. I am getting closer to that time now, and that is the difference.

There is a brilliant young Indigenous doctor, Ngiare Brown—a wonderful person. When I visited the medical faculty at Darwin University last year, I saw a number of Indigenous Australians involved in studying to become a doctor. There should be more but it is getting there; it is noticeable. I think that is important.

The other aspect of note from this inquiry occurred on the day that we were in Sydney. We were taking evidence from the Aids Council of New South Wales. Chris, a young bloke who was there, was the men's Aboriginal worker. He had been putting his evidence about his day-to-day work and then in a 'by the way' manner he said: 'But the real thing is: how would you feel if you were a bloke like me'—and, again, I think he was born about the time of my sister—'and when you were born you were a non-person? You weren't counted in the census.' It had never struck me that I was involved. I was of a similar age to him and I had a sister his age. So he was talking about my generation. As a person he has turned out very successfully but in the back of his mind is this fact that when he was born that was his status. That was when I started to think that some of these things are really very difficult for these individuals. Some of the things that we have 'institutionally' done through our laws have to be recognised and rectified. And so, as time went on and we built the momentum to seeing the events of four years ago today, the understanding of the importance of these symbolic steps dawned on me. The fact is that we had to do these things.

How lucky do you get in life? You get elected Speaker of the House of Representatives one day and you think that is pretty good. You bounce the ball on proceedings at 9 o'clock the next morning and then you go through one of the most moving experiences that you can ever be involved in, because the emotion on that day here, four years ago, was quite extraordinary. The fact that it really meant something was tangible. As part of the proceedings, I received the glass coolamon. It was presented to Prime Minister Rudd and then Leader of the Opposition Nelson, who presented it to me in the chair. The people of this place, the people who work here, had it on display that afternoon; it is now appropriately displayed. It is a very, very important symbol—the coolamon, a tool of antiquity. Coolamons are usually carved or made from bark but this one was made of a more modern material, glass, and in the Indigenous colours as a symbol of the Indigenous flag. That coolamon is displayed here as a reminder.

The function today was held at 10 o'clock but I had to leave because I had another thing to do. As I moved out, who should I bump into but Aunty Lorraine Peeters, who had actually presented the coolamon. Many things happen that make you think that these things are really meant to happen. I got to briefly say to her 'Welcome back' and things like that. Today's small ceremony was very important because of what it emphasised. The contributions that have been made by the member for Hasluck, the member for Canberra and the member for Riverina are important because they all recognise that we are still on a journey. For me personally, at a very small gathering in this place to celebrate what happened four years ago, my reading of it was that people were still walking together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and that there was a determination to make things happen. That to me is very important.

The Stolen Generations Alliance gathers around a journey of healing, truth and justice. I think that is something that we should be very optimistic about, but it is a hard slog. It is not going to be easy. When we get into the political debate across the chamber it is right to keep each other honest, but I think that in this place there is a great deal more determination to rectify the wrongs of the past and to do the right thing that transcends the politics. We will have the argy-bargy about some of the methods, but importantly we still have to continue the dialogue. My friend Ken Wyatt described what the people of the stolen generation themselves are putting together as their view of the way forward, and that is important because that dialogue is going to be important in the way we move forward.

Today it is appropriate that we acknowledge by these short statements—although mine should have been shorter—our determination to see the task through. We recognise that this is a situation that requires all of us to work together in partnership, to listen, to continue to understand the hurt that there was and to see that things can be very positive in our determination to improve all those things that are important. The inquiry that the Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs did was entitled Health is life. Why Health is life? We had a bit of difficulty finding a term or expression in an Indigenous language for health. We heard from the National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party that:

In Aboriginal society there is no word, term or expression for ‘health’ as it is understood in western society … The word as it is used in Western society almost defies translation but the nearest translation in an Aboriginal context would probably be a term such as ‘life is health is life’.

That is the important thing in so much of Indigenous culture that transcends our known bounds of definition—the association with the land and that type of thought about health. To our Indigenous brothers and sisters I indicate that I am pleased that the journey has a greater pace than when I was first elected to this place. It is not the end; it is part of the beginning. We should all be determined to ensure that the gaps are closed.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of Australia, wherever they may be. In particular, I acknowledge the special status of the Yorta Yorta, Bangarang and other Indigenous peoples in my electorate of Murray. Today I am recognising the anniversary of the national declaration of Sorry Day on 13 February 2008. This followed the motion of regret passed on 26 August 1999, moved by John Howard when he was Prime Minister, with words fashioned in consultation with Indigenous leaders of the day.

The problem continues to be that few Australians are closely familiar with the facts of the contact history of our country. We did have frontier wars as different Aboriginal nations fought to keep their land and defend their people. We did have native police, led by white officers with secret verbal instructions to 'track and disperse' the natives—a euphemism for shooting to kill. We did have slavery, which we called the indenturing system, whereby Indigenous children were forced into labour without pay, some from the age of six, with masters who could and did summon the police to track them down, punish them and return them to work when they escaped. We did have 'miscegenation policies', which is a euphemism for 'breed them white', when it was noticed that Aborigines of mixed descent were outnumbering so-called full bloods in many places and when the economy was desperately short of manual labourers.

These colonial and post-Federation policies are described in detail and documented in a series of royal commissions and parliamentary inquiries—in the House of Commons in the UK, in every Australian colonial parliament and then in the states and the Commonwealth after 1901. Page after page of sworn evidence gives a window onto the attitudes and policies which we find unthinkable today but which led to the need for the nation to collectively say sorry on 13 February 2008.

I think it is timely to be reminded of how far we have come as a nation in adjusting our attitudes and responses to the Indigenous peoples of Australia—the original owners. Today Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are acknowledged with protocols and with respect where once they were mostly or only objects of sympathy or disgust or were racially vilified.

In 1977 my documentary history of official government policy and race relations was published after years of research. I still reach to these documentary extracts to remind myself—often—that the miracle is that Aboriginal people survived with their oldest living culture intact or evolved in many parts of modern Australia and that some of their languages survive but, most importantly, that their identity as Aboriginal peoples has never been stronger since the usurpation of their countries which began in earnest in 1788.

I want to read from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, volume 2, part 2, 1929, when the Chief Protector, Mr Bleakley, reported on the conditions of the Aborigines and half-castes of Central Australia and North Australia. He reported under the heading 'Quadroons and octoroons' after going through various other headings describing full bloods, half-castes and so on:

As already indicated the crossbreed with a preponderance of white blood should be considered separately. Their blood entitles them to be given a chance to take their place in the white community and on as favourable a footing as possible. That this may be successfully accomplished, the children should be removed from aboriginal associations at the earliest possible age and given all the advantages in education and vocational training possible to white State children to minimise as far as possible the handicap of their colour and friendless circumstances.

He goes on:

To avoid the dangers of the blood call, employment should be found where they will not come into contact with aborigines or aboriginal half castes. In spite of such precautions however, a few will doubtless drift back, and it may be found advisable to allow, even encourage, the marriage of such difficult cases with crossbreeds of darker strain.

He continues:

While official supervision and control is essential in their own interests, any appearance of branding with the aboriginal stamp should be avoided so as not to hamper unduly their upward progress. For instance, a rigid application of the regulation rates of wages for aboriginals would be manifestly unfair, as, with equal opportunities for learning, many should prove as useful as the average European servant.

This advice and Bleakley's recommendation were already in play in some parts of Australia at that time—we are talking about the 1920s. Following this very significant report to the government they were taken up more seriously. The children were removed from their parents—often forcibly, of course, and often after a great deal of hunting and tracking by police to find those children. They were placed in missions and training institutions. These children are often referred to today as the stolen generations. But did governments of the day, whether state or Commonwealth or the nascent territory governments, in fact honour the misguided but philanthropic intentions of Chief Protector Bleakley and his like minded officials and members of parliament? Did they in fact protect and educate these children who were taken away? Sadly, the children removed to be educated and raised as white were too often neglected and abused.

In the House of Representatives Commonwealth parliamentary debates of 1939 to 1940, on 7 December my predecessor, the member for Murray, Sir John McEwen, complained about the condition of the Alice Springs shelter for half-castes. He said:

There I saw a state of affairs which honorable members will find it difficult to believe—120 half-caste children, and 13 or 14 adult fullblooded and half-caste women, the parents of some of the young half-caste children, living in that most deplorable old building, which, when it rained heavily, took in the water almost as if there were no roof at all. The dormitories were a disgrace. …

The building was roofed with corrugated iron, and had a concrete floor, so that it must certainly have been too hot in summer and almost unbearably cold in winter. I know many stud stock breeders who would not dream of crowding their stock in the way that these half-caste children were huddled in this institution in Alice Springs. Today I see that there is not one penny of the estimates to correct the deplorable state of affairs that exists at Alice Springs. It is a shameful thing to allow it to continue.

Sir John went on to describe the so-called half-caste compound at Darwin as equally shocking and disturbing and without any relief in sight.

It is right that we remind Australian citizens of this parliament's 'sorry' motion, moved in parliament four years ago. We also need to remind ourselves of its forerunner under the Howard government in 1999 and the Reconciliation Council, which worked for a number of years. I was proudly a government representative on that council. We tried to put together something that in some way would be for all Australians a serious and real statement of reconciliation. We need to continue, however, to translate a sense of sorrow and regret into real actions and new commitments for all Australians.

I am very pleased to be the Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. We have just completed a study of adolescent youths in custody and we are now considering how to retain and restore Indigenous languages at the same time as helping all Indigenous children become fluent in English so that they can fully participate in the broader Australian society. This is important work, and I am constantly struck by the goodwill of those working in the fields of linguistics, education and policy making who stepped forward to give evidence to our inquiry. There were Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people from every background and from every part of Australia.

We have come a very long way from our often brutal colonial views and actions. We are a great nation with a great future for all Australians and our spirit of reconciliation is a lesson to be learned by many other countries struggling to reach the point that we are now at in our nation. But we must never forget the past as we build a better future. We must never forget that all things are possible when people from different parts of the country remember that we are in fact all humans with equal opportunities and with an equal sense of our own humanity.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the Ngunawal and the Ngambri peoples as the traditional custodians of the Canberra area and the Noongar people as the traditional custodians of south-west Australia, including my electorate of Fremantle. I would like to take this opportunity on the fourth anniversary of the national apology to Indigenous Australians, including the stolen generations, to acknowledge that remarkable day in this place and to express the wish that we will see the hopes of that day become reality in the foreseeable future. Australia has received international recognition for the apology, as well as for endorsing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Persons and for the implementation of the highly acclaimed Indigenous Electoral Participation Program. Of course, we now have a welcome to country at the opening of parliament and we acknowledge traditional custodians at the beginning of each parliamentary day. Importantly, we are presently embarked on a process to achieve constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples. The government has also taken many positive initiatives under the Closing the Gap program, which will be detailed shortly in the annual statement by the Prime Minister.

However, the disturbing fact remains, at present, that Aboriginal people still suffer significantly poorer health, education and employment outcomes than non-Indigenous Australians and are vastly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. The appalling death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward in the back of a prison van in early 2008 after a raft of failures by WA Police and a number of WA government departments and by the private contractor G4S and its employees remains emblematic of the challenges.

The disturbing events of Australia Day this year were, in my view, at least partly attributable to the overwhelming despair and frustration felt by many Aboriginal Australians over the ongoing plight of their communities. The dramatic scenes on Australia Day also serve to highlight the essential discomforting aspect of our national day. It is not a unifying event. The date of 26 January marks the start of white settlement in New South Wales 224 years ago. There is nothing about that date that unifies the nation in and of itself. It also marks the beginning of the dispossession of Australia's Indigenous populations from their lands, from their families and from their culture. Given the disadvantage still suffered by Aboriginal Australians, it is no wonder they object to a celebration of this nature.

We share our national date with India's Republic Day, which commemorates the coming into force of the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950 and the freedom struggle leading up to that event. Other nations, including the US and Bangladesh, celebrate their national day as the day they attained independence. Australia became a federation on 1 January 1901. The federal parliament first met on 9 May of that year. Australia became independent of British legal jurisdiction on 3 March 1986, when the Australia Act came into operation. These have been suggested as perhaps more appropriate days. I raise this matter in the hope that it will be part of a wider community discussion, as it seems to be something you only hear on and about Australia Day, which then gets forgotten until the following year. Perhaps it will naturally be a part of a revived national debate around an Australian republic.

Another matter I wish to raise in this place today is the lack of Aboriginal representation in the national parliament. While there have been a number of Aboriginal MPs in state and territory parliaments around the country, there has been only one Aboriginal representative in the House of Representatives, the member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, elected in August 2010, and prior to that only two Aboriginal representatives in the Senate.

In late 2010 I attended an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference on behalf of the Australian parliament on the subject of effective participation in politics of minorities and Indigenous peoples. The conference was held in Mexico in the state of Chiapas, which contains the largest indigenous population in Mexico. The conference discussed the fact that adequate representation of minorities and indigenous peoples in policy and decision making is instrumental in breaking the cycle of poverty, discrimination and disadvantage that many members of these groups suffer, but the fact remains that minorities and indigenous peoples often remain excluded from effective decision making, including in national parliaments.

It was noted that one of the criteria for a democratic parliament is that it should reflect the diversity of the population and ensure that all citizens can participate equally. It was felt that the presence of representatives of minorities and indigenous peoples in parliament is important both symbolically and substantively. Symbolically, it transmits a clear message that they are part of the national community and take part in decisions regarding the nation's future. Substantively, they can directly influence the work of the parliament and they can also promote the interests and concerns of their communities. But ultimately it is not just up to Aboriginal people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to represent their communities' needs and concerns; it is up to all of us who want to see an inclusive parliament and a truly inclusive society.

The Chiapas Declaration made a number of recommendations, including that a debate be held in the national parliament on the representation of minorities and indigenous peoples and that a national plan of action be developed to make the right of equal participation and nondiscrimination a reality. The declaration also called upon political parties to promote the effective participation of minorities and indigenous peoples. I intend to move a motion relating to the Chiapas Declaration in the near future and I hope I will have the support of the whole parliament. As other speakers to this Sorry Day motion have noted, the original Sorry Day four years ago was, of course, not a final resolution but just the beginning of making things right. Some progress has been made and much remains to be done. As said so eloquently just now by the member for Scullin, we are on a journey together. I applaud the work of Reconciliation Australia, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the Close the Gap campaign, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, Halo, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and all those committed in this place and elsewhere to genuine progress and reconciliation, both substantive and symbolic, for Indigenous Australians.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too want to acknowledge the Ngambri and Ngunawal people and pay my respects to elders, past and present, and also acknowledge the huge pride I feel when I walk with and learn from the Darug people who are part of the Chifley electorate. Too often the vision of our nation's parliament that is captured on nightly news, in media or elsewhere is one that focuses much on the conflict and the drama that tends to inhabit certain corners of this place. However, I think it would benefit the Australian community to, in some part, also witness the words and sentiments that are expressed in this place.

In particular I wish to draw attention to what has occurred here today in recognising Sorry Day and the contributions that have been made by a number of people including the member for Fremantle a few moments ago. I was also particularly impressed by the member for Murray and her powerful contribution. I came in at the tail-end of the member for Scullin's contribution. While he obviously played an enormously critical role to the parliament—a role that he has more recently occupied—not only does he bring to this chamber a voice of reason and regard but also he is something that we may also benefit from. I listened carefully to his contribution and I want to acknowledge the member for Scullin and what he had to say, particularly as reflected on by the member for Fremantle, that we are on a journey together and that the apology itself did not mark an end point but is something that we need to continually work from and aspire to make better.

Today, as every anniversary since the apology delivered by then Prime Minister Rudd, the Mount Druitt and District Reconciliation Group that operates in the electorate of Chifley commemorates the day usually at the Holy Family Centre at Emerton. Chifley, I am proud to say, is home to probably about 6,000 people from Aboriginal background and I am proud to represent and work with locals in advancing their interests in terms of developing a better future, not only for themselves but also for their kids.

Today they will welcome an extremely special guest, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda. The group were particularly fond of an address that he provided to the National Press Club in November 2010. He spoke in that address about his commitment and the work that he would contribute towards the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. I wanted to reflect on some of his words when he said:

It’s not about looking back.

It’s about looking forward and moving forward as one, united nation.

One mob under the Southern Cross.

That speech 'One mob under the Southern Cross' particularly enlivened the Mount Druitt and District Reconciliation Group. They saw that the speech signalled his priorities as a commissioner, and his words touched many which I wanted to quote today. He said:

Relationships are built on understanding, dialogue, tolerance, acceptance, respect, trust and reciprocated affection.

Relationships are destroyed by misunderstanding, intolerance, a lack of acceptance, a lack of dialogue, mistrust and a lack of respect.

It spoke not just to those at the National Press Club but to many people in our local area who were keen to see him and hear from him. My one regret is that, after badgering him and trying to, euphemistically, vigorously represent a desire for him to visit Chifley, I am not able to be present today for his address. But I am sure that he will leave a lasting impact, as he always does, and a lot of lessons that can be learned from his words.

I want to congratulate the Mount Druitt and District Reconciliation Group for the work they do. For the past 14 years, they have every May organised a reconciliation walk in Mount Druitt. It continues to grow and they had a particularly successful one last year. I would like to acknowledge in this place the selfless work of a number of people. It is not just once a year; they meet every month and work quietly within the community, building bridges but also inspiring others. I want to acknowledge Marguerite Tobin, the president, and Pat Smith, the secretary, and they are joined by Michael Maxwell, Lyn Leerson, Kim Martin, Uncle Greg Simms, Uncle Wes Marne and Holy Family at Emerton for the work they do in providing a platform and a base of support for the Mount Druitt reconciliation group and all the great work that they do.

The member for Murray indicated, and I was particularly happy that she made reference to the fact, that I too am a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. I sought to be on the committee, given that there are a lot of people in my neck of the woods whom I am keen to work with and advocate on behalf of. I was especially pleased that the committee took on the work of inquiring into Indigenous languages. I think that most people who have grown up where English is a second language recognise that a connection to one's mother tongue is important on so many levels, not the least of which is that it is the link between generations; it also forms a concrete bond with culture.

In large part this is not an esoteric exercise. This inquiry is important. People in the broader community want to engage in speaking English for a host of obvious reasons, but I think there has to be space within our education system to provide for people to be able to learn Indigenous languages, and in particular for the younger generations of Indigenous Australians to learn their mother tongue and be able to pass that on and transmit culture between generations. I certainly feel strongly about that. I look forward to government receiving the formal report of the committee's inquiry and taking tangible, concrete steps, because I think it is so vitally important in so many ways.

Again, it is an honour for me not only to participate in the debate but also to listen to contributions made by people who are setting such a great example for this parliament. As I said, I look forward to the outcome of a number of other important initiatives. As reflected on by the member for Scullin, and as I mentioned earlier in this contribution, we are all on the journey together and together we look forward to making some tangible and concrete improvements.

Debate adjourned.