Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Australians. How are Australians marking Reconciliation Week in 2024, and how is the Albanese Labor government supporting survivors of the stolen generations and advancing reconciliation?

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and her enduring interest in this issue. Across the country, Australians are marking Reconciliation Week, a time for us to come together to learn and celebrate shared histories, cultures and achievements, a time when the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continues.

On Sunday I attended the Coota Girls Sorry Day event in Sydney. The Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls was a notorious place, run by the Aborigines Welfare Board, to provide so-called training to girls forcibly taken from their families, except the only training provided to the girls was to be domestic servants. The girls were banned from ever seeing their families and robbed of their connection to culture and country. Many were abused. The resilience, grace and generosity of these women in the face of such pain and dispossession is simply astounding. We are investing a further $3.5 million to support stolen generations survivors and their families.

I also attended Michael Long's Long Walk before Dreamtime at the G, along with the member for Solomon. Thousands of footy fans gathered to walk together for reconciliation. It's 20 years since Michael set out on his long walk from Melbourne to Canberra to put Aboriginal rights on the national agenda and to advocate for closing the gap. Twenty years on, the struggle to close the gap endures. The Albanese government is investing in closing the gap by investing in housing, jobs, health, education and justice. Central to this is establishing a new system of remote jobs and economic development to replace CDP. I remain hopeful that we can close the gap.

The story of the Aboriginal justice and rights movement is one of both progress and setbacks. Reconciliation is a long, winding journey, not a straight line, but with each step on the journey we get closer—closer to a better future, closer to justice for First Nations people. I want to thank Karen Mundine and Reconciliation Australia for their work. Now more than ever we need to walk together in unity.