Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. It's 10 years since Kevin Rudd's historic national apology to the stolen generations. It's more than 20 years after the Bringing them home report. Will the Prime Minister join with Labor and commit to establishing a compensation scheme for the few remaining survivors of the stolen generations within Commonwealth jurisdictions?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, when he spoke in response to my tabling of the Closing the gap report, said that he believed there were 150 surviving members of the stolen generations. Our advice is that there are, in fact, up to 500. I just note that point. We noted the commitment that he made.

We commissioned some work by the Healing Foundation to inform the government on how best to support surviving victims of the stolen generations and their families. As the honourable member understands, we're committed to doing things with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Australians, not doing things to them. The report is due in April. We will be considering that and the advice of our Indigenous Advisory Council and other Indigenous leaders, as we demonstrated last week at the special gathering. We'll be considering that report and then forming a response.

I understand the spirit in which the honourable member made the commitment, but I trust he understands that, as we've seen with refreshing the Closing the Gap targets, it's taking a few months longer than I would've preferred. The important thing is that we do things with Indigenous Australians, not to them—that's been one of the criticisms of the first set of targets. We've taken that on board, and the next set are going to be the result of very careful consultation.