Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I have only seven minutes in which to speak and it is not enough time to do due justice to this very important and most fundamental of issues. However, I will do what I can. I will continue to draw attention to the issues contained in the report entitled Unfinished business: Indigenous stolen wages presented by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. I acknowledge the presence in the gallery of Yvonne Butler and Russell Butler Sr. They have come down from Townsville. It is the commitment and determination of such people, combined with determined research by a number of committed historians, that has enabled some of the facts to come to light and such action as has happened to date in Queensland to occur. I also acknowledge Charmaine Smith, who also put in a submission to the inquiry on behalf of her community in South Australia.

One of my aims in establishing this inquiry was not just to have another vehicle to draw attention to the failure of the Queensland government to respond adequately to this issue—although I will certainly continue to voice my views on that, as I have done in my additional comments in the report and elsewhere—but to draw attention to the fact that I suspected this issue went beyond Queensland and New South Wales and that it was an issue that needed national attention. As was said I think by Senator Crossin, this inquiry just scratched the surface, but it scratched enough to establish a prima facie case that similar issues have occurred in almost all other states, as well as the Northern Territory. We need to learn from the mistakes that have been made in Queensland and we need to act much more quickly to bring justice and full truth to light.

There is a continual push in this country for more attention to be paid to history. I have consistently supported the Prime Minister in his call for a greater focus on Australian history. There is a lot about our history that we do not know about or we just will not acknowledge. Some of the issues that became apparent during this inquiry and from the information that is now on the record through the submissions and the public hearings go to that history. When people talk about looking more at history it is often presented as part of the so-called history wars, where spin doctors will spin their preferred version of history. The reason I support more attention being paid to history is that the history of what we have done to Indigenous Australians is not something that can be spun. It is there on the records, it is there in the archives, and it is there in the memories and the hearts of Indigenous Australians. So many of us do not know about it. If we put it on the record, as has been done slowly over the years, we cannot spin it; it is there. It is not pleasant, but it is a reality that we have to acknowledge.

Some of the work that has been done, particularly the work by Dr Ros Kidd—not just her recent book Trustees on Trial but also her book from a number of years ago The Way We Civilise—predominantly focused on Queensland. We simply have to confront that reality and that history. History is not all pleasant but it is a key part of the reality of modern Australia. It has also been a key platform for part of the prosperity of modern Australia. The exploitation of Indigenous people around Australia goes far beyond just the misappropriation of their earnings and their funds. It is the foundation for the poverty and lack of opportunity that many Indigenous Australians face today. The concept of consequential poverty is a very real one. It is no great surprise that if you take away people’s earnings they stay in poverty.

There is a direct link between the practices that this inquiry went into and the reality of life for Indigenous Australians, even today in places like Palm Island, Woorabinda and Cherbourg—just to focus on places in my own state of Queensland. It is wider than just wages and earnings but it is part of that story. We heard some very powerful evidence from the people from Cherbourg, for example. The situation there was not just about misappropriating wages; it enabled governments to get away with not spending money that should have been spent on the welfare of those people. That situation led directly to not just poverty but also sickness, death and of course great sadness. This is not just history; this is here and now. That was quite clear from the evidence given to the inquiry, and it is what I am continually told by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around Queensland and more widely.

I would like to reinforce Senator Payne’s comments as well: it would be an abrogation of moral responsibility for state governments and the federal government not to act. The federal government of course had administrative responsibility for the Northern Territory during the periods that we are talking about. I agree that we actually do not need a royal commission if state governments and the federal government were to act—that is what is needed. We do not want something that will take many more years and cost a lot more money. We simply want people to be able to get access to the records now. With a relatively small amount of funding, with leadership from the federal government to encourage the states to kick in as well—as the first three recommendations of this report suggest—the facts could be brought to light much more quickly and much more promptly. As an example, and also by way of tribute, I note the evidence from one of the people from Cherbourg, Pastor Collins, who gave evidence to the inquiry just at the end of October in Brisbane. He passed away between then and now. He told us at that inquiry—it is no secret that he was over 70 years old at the time—that people are ageing and the need for action is now. I pay tribute to him and the legacy of his life. I think his evidence to that hearing just a few weeks ago showed his commitment to and passion for justice for his people.

The simple fact is that the time to act is now. We need to do more than scratch the surface. We have to dive in to get to the facts, and that requires resourcing. If state governments and the federal government enabled that to happen and provided the opportunity for the archival work to be done—so we do not just have to rely on the next Ros Kidd in each state to do that work—then we could advance it much more quickly. I believe that, combined with the oral history research, is important. As Senator Payne said, it would be an abrogation of moral responsibility not to act and to let this drag on. By way of example, the response from the federal department currently responsible for Indigenous affairs to some of these questions about what happened in the past and what is in this report was: ‘It’s not our responsibility.’ Whose responsibility is it? That is the key issue here and now. It is time for governments to take responsibility for past actions, to act on the recommendations and to work together with Indigenous Australians, not just to allow full access to the truth so the full reality of our history is exposed but to work together with Indigenous Australians to address the consequential and intergenerational poverty that is a direct result of decades of calculated, systemic practices that occurred over large parts of our nation. I very much hope this report will play a part in making that happen and that we act on these recommendations as promptly as possible. I am certainly committed to continuing to follow this up to make that happen.