Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is an important day for this parliament as we reflect on the 14th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, and I commend the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and particularly my friends the member for Hasluck and the member for Barton for their speeches.

I also want to commend a decision made recently by the New South Wales Premier to move to permanently fly the Aboriginal flag on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This is something I have strongly supported, particularly after it was raised with me very passionately by an Indigenous student from Hunters Hill High School in my electorate. This decision recognises the significant role that our Indigenous peoples have played in our nation's past, present and future, and the role of those communities, particularly in the Sydney region. I also want to reflect on the fact that, of course, the Sydney Harbour Bridge itself was the site of that incredible march of 250,000 people in the year 2000 in support of the cause of reconciliation—a march I was happy to join at that time.

I was reminded recently of how far we have come when I saw a post from the current principal of St Aloysius' College in Kirribilli, Mark Tannock. He told the story that the then headmaster, the late Father Tony Smith, decided to fly the Aboriginal flag for the 1988 bicentenary. It quickly occasioned a visit by the police to warn him that radicals had taken over the school flagpole. The school is proud that the flag continues to fly today.

It is an important decision, and I congratulate the Premier on making this a permanent reminder of reconciliation.