Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—We gather to mark the anniversary this past weekend of the Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples. And we do so here, in the Parliament and on Ngunawal land. It is fitting that we do this here in the place where the Apology was given and the place which free people believe can embody a nation's best hopes.

Today, as we reflect, we first give honour. I honour the local custodians, the Ngunawal people and the first peoples across this great continent. I thank them and their elders, past, present and emerging, for 65,000 years of continuous stewardship of our land. I honour the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, both of whom are making history in this House. Amidst the cut and thrust of this vibrant chamber, we all share a deep respect for their journeys to this place and the contribution they make. I also honour Senator Patrick Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Lidia Thorpe and Senator Jacqui Lambie. Every one of you is a testimony of resilience and strength, and a reminder of the journey our country is making. And I honour the Indigenous leaders who have joined us and representatives from the stolen generations who I met with earlier. Wonderful people with very powerful stories.

It is 13 years since Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, gave an apology on behalf of the nation in this very place. There is nothing special about that number. In the span of the 65,000 years of Indigenous habitation of this continent, it's a heartbeat. But nations are a living continuum of past, present and future. In all of us, the loves, losses and traumas of our past live on in us. They linger, they have their own life, and they are passed on. Nations, too, try to make sense of their past—to reconcile it—with truth, justice and with one another. As Sir William Deane said a quarter of a century ago:

True reconciliation … is not achievable in the absence of acknowledgment by the nation of the wrongfulness of the past dispossession, oppression and degradation of the Aboriginal peoples.

Earlier today, I found some quiet time to reread parts of Bringing them home. Children forcibly removed from parents; mothers chasing after police cars that had taken their children; siblings separated; adoptions without consent; forced servitude; welfare institutions were cruel, devoid of warmth, love or care; parents searching for lost children; grief, trauma, endless pain that cascaded through generations—all actioned by the state, a state that seized absolute control over Aboriginal people's lives: where they could live, where they could travel, who they could marry, and what children, if any, they could raise. Actions of brute force were carried out under claims of 'good intentions', but in truth betrayed the ignorance of arrogance, 'knowing better than our Indigenous peoples'. In acknowledging that fact, I repeat the words of my predecessor, Mr Rudd: I am sorry. Truly sorry.

In past years, we have on this anniversary reported on our efforts to improve the life expectancy, health, education and economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians. But, as with so much that had been tried before, our efforts were based more on telling than listening, more on grand aspirations than the experience of Indigenous peoples. So, while there was no lack of money, will or work, our targets were unmet, and, while there was some progress, our ambitions were unfulfilled. Mostly, it was because we were perpetuating the very idea that has plagued our country for so long—that we knew better. We had to move to partnership.

And so, in July last year, we signed a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap, an agreement reached through a historic partnership between Australian governments and Indigenous peak organisations. It's a new chapter in our efforts, one built on mutual trust, respect and dignity. It not only sets new targets; it changes howwe achieve them and who's driving them. Following this momentous achievement, all governments and the Coalition of Peaks will deliver their implementation plans in the middle of this year—12 months on from the national agreement. From here on, reporting on our national progress will occur mid-year, but my hope is that this anniversary will remain a poignant reminder in our national life and parliamentary calendar, as it should.

As we recall what happened in this chamber—and in the life of our nation—13 years ago, we should also remind ourselves of the hope of that day. After Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson had spoken, Aunty Lorraine Peeters, a member of the stolen generations, presented the parliament with a gift. Think about that: a gift, after being wronged. The gift was a coolamon. The coolamon carries newborns. It carries life itself, the future and, with it, our hopes. The coolamon was accompanied by a message: 'On behalf of our people, thank you for saying sorry.' What grace, and what hope. The message went on to say:

We have a new covenant between our peoples, that we will do all we can to make sure our children are carried forward, loved and nurtured and able to live a full life.

On this anniversary, we reaffirm that new covenant and that shared hope.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will just ask the Prime Minister to present a copy of the statement.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present a copy of my ministerial statement.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to 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.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the document.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the House take note of the document.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the members of the stolen generations and Indigenous people in this chamber today sitting and observing. To my parliamentary colleagues who are Indigenous members of this parliament: thank you for the work that you do; it is important. I acknowledge the Ngunawal people, who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area, and pay my respects to the elders past and present of all Indigenous peoples.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures have spanned 65,000 years. Ours are cultures that care for country, land and water. They are cultures that are sewn into the fabric of modern-day Australia, and they are cultures that have survived dispossession, disease and disruption.

Today I stand in our national parliament, like Harry, as the son of a stolen generations survivor. I stand here as the first Aboriginal person elected to the House of Reps and a first on many other fronts. But I know that my mother would have been proud to have seen me stand in this chamber.

I see all too often the disadvantage in our communities, the struggles of our people to be heard. I've spent many hours over many years listening to the men and women of the stolen generations whose experiences have left them with indelible memories of the things done to them because of government policy, even well-intentioned.

My mother's own story, and that of her brothers and sisters, has affected my approach to life and what I fight for. I have read my grandparents' and mother's native welfare files that outline the way in which they were controlled and managed by government and the institutions of the day.

On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stood at the dispatch box and delivered a formal apology to Australia's Indigenous people—particularly to the stolen generations, victims of past government policies of forced child removal and cultural assimilation. On that day, on behalf of all Australians he said: 'I am sorry,' and I associate myself with the comments of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Today those words are as important, as a reminder of the journey that we have all walked, a significant moment on the path to reconciliation and an acknowledgement of our shared history and the importance of our contribution to this national story.

Following the national apology came the effort to close the gap. For over a decade, we saw mixed results, inconsistencies in outcomes and a failure to achieve permanent change. This is not to detract from the commitment and motivation of former governments in their efforts to close the gap. Under our government, we are changing the way in which we work with Indigenous Australians, not just in our efforts to close the gap but in everything we strive to do. Our government is committed to working in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians because we know that the best outcomes occur when governments and Indigenous Australians work together, from the landmark national agreement on closing the gap to the ongoing work to empower Indigenous Australians through the Indigenous voice codesign process and ongoing work to ensure economic recovery provides opportunity for our peoples through skills, jobs and wealth creation.

The Prime Minister has made it clear that the National Agreement on Closing the Gap is a whole-of-government priority. The targets and reforms agreed to in the national agreement require governments to change the way we work, and, as a government, we are changing the way that we do business. Our ministers are working together, and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, to deliver a Commonwealth implementation plan that will achieve better life outcomes in partnership with our people.

This includes the work underway to develop the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Strategy, in concert with SNAICC, as part of our implementation approach. Working in partnership, our focus is to ensure young children have access to good-quality, culturally safe and accessible care and education services. This means that when a child goes to school they'll have a better chance of success.

Across all jurisdictions and with the peak organisations there will be shared accountability. For the first time state and territory governments will need to present to their parliaments on their progress towards closing the gap. It is the job of all Australian governments to address Indigenous disadvantage and to implement programs that contribute to closing the gap in all of the key and critical areas.

The Prime Minister will deliver the Commonwealth's implementation plan and report on progress that we have made against the targets using the Productivity Commission's data review midyear, and it will clearly show how our actions are contributing to achieving the priority reforms and targets and how we are reporting and leveraging existing initiatives—such as mental health, skills and job creation—to achieve targets and to embed the four priority reforms. The new actions we commit to taking are actions to bring about the change imagined in the national agreement, and significant progress is being made. It is about thinking differently, but there is much more to do.

Again, I state that our commitment to working in genuine partnership is the foundation for the changes that we need to achieve. As we implement the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, we will continue to work closely with our people. We will continue to co-design an Indigenous voice because there is much that we can take from the past as we look to the future. I ask that we all look at the role that we can play in empowering Indigenous Australians, our elders and traditional owners, and work to continue to improve the lives and futures of the next generation of Indigenous people as we continue to walk side by side, as one, to reflect, respect and celebrate that which makes us all Australians: Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

I saw that reflected in one of the recipients, Miriam, who said, 'Do things with us: walk with us, work with us, listen and then shape the future'. To all of the stolen generation members: what we want to do is honour what they achieved, acknowledge what happened and ensure that it doesn't happen to future generations. That is a challenge for every one of us in here, because when we are one we are strong and when we walk together we have limitless potential.

I acknowledge, in closing, all of those who are still with us from the stolen generation and all Indigenous Australians who aspire to a better future, to better opportunities and to their rightful place in every facet of Australian life.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recognise country and everyone that has joined us today. I want to tell a very personal story of a remarkable day: 13 February 2008. The story had started many years before. It began with the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families—the Bringing them home report—some 11 years earlier. It followed a decade of stubborn refusal by a Prime Minister and a government, for reasons I will never understand and from whom an apology required so little yet means so much to so many.

I will never forget 27 May 1997 when Mick Dodson and the late Sir Ronald Wilson lodged the Bringing them home report at the convention centre in Melbourne at the 1997 Reconciliation Convention. Senator Dodson, our chair, his bravery was extraordinary. He declared in front of the world there can't be reconciliation without social justice, a moment that held such power, such truth and, in my mind, always will.

Thirteen years ago, after the election of the Rudd government, the apology allowed this country to breathe again. We'd been holding our collective breath for so long it was like suffocating. The power of words must never be underestimated: they can hurt but they can also heal. That day I sat in the third row of the Speaker's gallery, up there—your gallery, Deputy Speaker Gillespie. As I looked down on the chamber, there were present all living former prime ministers, bar one: Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam. I remember survivors of the stolen generation were sitting around the chamber, and we heard both the Prime Minister and the leader of the Labor Party talk about that today. I also acknowledge the presence of the stolen generations with us at the moment. We sat not quite believing the moment. As Prime Minister Rudd began to speak, the tears flowed not just in this place but across the nation. Prime Minister Rudd said:

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

He went on to say:

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

At the conclusion of the apology, as the Prime Minister and my leader have said, a coolamon was presented to the parliament by way of Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin. It was a powerful acknowledgement of the apology as a coolamon is traditionally used to keep safe our infants. This was a remarkable gesture of grace, generosity and dignity. I don't think I'll ever see anything like it again.

I left this chamber and made my way to the forecourt. Aunty Mae Robinson—she's gone now—was carrying a large black-and-white photo of a young Aboriginal girl with a big bow in her hair. It was her mother. We fell into each other's arms, and, through tears, Aunty Mae said: 'I brought Mummy with me today. She was removed and sent to Cootamundra.' On the lawn, thousands of people were holding each other and crying. It was a good day.

But the apology was not just about saying sorry; it was about making things right. It marked the beginning of a commitment by government to close the gap, to heal the very real inequalities between First Nations and other Australians. We all know the grim statistics, so familiar that our eyes glaze over and our ears close up, but think of these statistics, so familiar, as our mothers and brothers, fathers and cousins, sisters and friends who pass on while still so young. Labor supports the new approach to closing the gap and the new targets, but in the 2020 report only two of the seven targets were on track. After more than a decade, the other five were not, including life expectancy.

Refreshing the targets and setting new deadlines that are yet further away must not become a bureaucratic sleight of hand that lets this parliament off the hook for another decade—and I include all of us in that—because by 2031 a whole generation will have passed. We must all be accountable for the central commitment of closing the gap—closing the life expectancy gap in a generation. In 2005 the Social Justice Report set Australia the challenge of closing the gap. As one of the first items of business, the Rudd Labor government committed to closing the gap as part of a great national effort.

In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart set this country the challenge of delivering voice, treaty and truth. Three and a half years later, those aspirations remain outstanding. If we want to see real and lasting progress on closing the gap, First Nations people must be at the centre of decision-making. I know the new agreement is about that. That is why Labor is totally committed to all three elements of the Uluru statement: a constitutionally enshrined voice to the parliament, not just the government; and a makarrata commission of treaty making and truth telling, because the healing power of telling the truth, as my leader has said, did not end with the apology; it began.

A constitutionally enshrined voice to the parliament is within our grasp if this government wants it and we extend our hand. As the Labor leader has said, we want to work with you in the spirit of bipartisanship to make this a reality in this term of parliament. I don't care who gets the credit. I really don't. I just want to see it done. If political parties offer their full-throated endorsement of an enshrined voice to the parliament and a model is settled with the broad support of First Nations communities, I have no doubt a referendum will succeed. There is time to get this done if we work together and with the community. The government started out this term speaking with real ambition, and now it's time for action. An enshrined voice to the parliament would mark the beginning of a pragmatic new way of doing business for all of us—a new way of listening, of being heard, of being accountable and of making sure the laws, programs and policies of the government are actually working to achieve what we, on this day each year, profess as our national duty: to finally close that gap.

Can I complete my statement with a direct quote from the Bringing them home report:

Most of us girls were thinking white in the head but were feeling black inside. We weren't black or white. We were a very lonely, lost and sad displaced group of people. We were taught to think and act like a white person, but we didn't know how to think and act like an Aboriginal. We didn't know anything about our culture.

We were completely brainwashed to think only like a white person. When they went to mix in white society, they found they were not accepted [because] they were Aboriginal. When they went and mixed with Aborigines, some found they couldn't identify with them either, because they had too much white ways in them. So that they were neither black nor white. They were simply a lost generation of children. I know. I was one of them.

Debate adjourned.