Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I understand that the government is granting me an extra two minutes. I seek leave to extend my time to five minutes.

Leave granted.

Thank you. This is an extremely important issue and I thank the Senate for granting me leave to make a statement. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge that we are on Ngunnawal people’s lands. They are the traditional owners of the land on which we stand. I also want to acknowledge all of the Aboriginal people who worked hard to build this country but did not receive the benefits of that wealth creation. I particularly want to acknowledge the witnesses who came forward to give their evidence to the committee. I understand that it caused them, in some cases, deep distress. I extend my thanks and deep respect to those witnesses.

In speaking today on the tabling of this report, I want to focus particularly on the issues relating to my home state of Western Australia. I am doing so because the preliminary evidence that has been brought to light during the inquiry indicates that the issue and the scale of injustice is every bit as serious in the west as it was in Queensland and New South Wales. In particular, the small amount of historical research done so far in the west indicates that there was a systematic alienation of pension and maternity allowances in the state and that this was huge.

More importantly, I would like to focus on WA because of the lack of any acknowledgment or any effort to make amends on the part of the state government. Whilst in Queensland there has been substantial progress in uncovering the evidence and there have been efforts made by the state governments, however flawed and inadequate this is—and we have heard reference to that this morning—at least it is a step in the right direction. In WA it is not simply a case of inaction as much as it is a failure of the state government to actually allow people access to their records, which therefore restricted them and did not enable them to give evidence at the inquiry. There has been deliberate delay of release of evidence from the archives, which meant, as I said, that people have not been able to get evidence to present to the inquiry. From other documentary evidence we know that these files exist. We know that some of the records are still around.

In focusing efforts on alienation of wages, unpaid and underpaid labour, systematic diversion of pensions and other social security payments, and the mismanagement and abuse of trust funds in WA, I would like to acknowledge the efforts that have been made in the west to try to uncover this so far—particularly the work done by the WA Aboriginal Legal Service, which is gathering evidence, trying to get access to files and surveying a number of Aboriginal people to gain evidence.

From preliminary evidence so far in WA, it appears that, unlike Queensland, the state government of the time did not necessarily take the wages, although there are some questions around trust funds. However, it is clear from the evidence that the state knew full well about the abuses that were taking place. It knew about widespread wage discrimination, and that it was complicit in keeping wages down and forcing Aboriginal people to work. It knew that it was complicit in ensuring that Aboriginal people did not receive most of the pension and child endowment moneys paid by the Commonwealth. It knew that the moneys paid to pastoral stations and missions were not being used to improve the living conditions of Aboriginal people. But it was unwilling to act.

The core injustice here, of course, is that this was Aboriginal money that they were denied access to. There has been no acknowledgment or recognition of how incredibly hard Aboriginal people worked to build this country. They cleared the land, they ran the cattle stations and they served people who grew wealthy from the resources of the land, but they never got to see the benefits of their hard labour or share in the wealth that they created. They were systematically and deliberately condemned to intergenerational poverty. The words of Professor Ann McGrath point to this very clearly. In the hearing she said to us:

I think that Aboriginal people have worked very hard and they have been taught that working hard does not get you anywhere financially. They usually have not been able to buy their own houses because they have so often had to live on government owned reserves. They have not even owned their own furniture. I think it would be very good to understand this economic history of Aborigines better because the average working-class person like my grandfather, for example, was able to buy a house on a government subsidised scheme. Consequently his family get to inherit real estate which often goes up in value, and Aboriginals have been denied both that and savings opportunities by schemes all around Australia.

Evidence that has been uncovered by ALS clearly indicates that the Commonwealth also knew what was going on in many circumstances. It is also clear that there are some records held by the Commonwealth that people have not yet had access to. I believe that needs to be made a priority.

We support the report from the committee. However, we did add two additional recommendations—that is, that the social justice commissioner monitor the implementation of the recommendations in the report; and that, if they are not implemented within 12 months, the Commonwealth should call a royal commission. I agree that we need to move forward. We need to get on with dealing with this sorry part of our history. I seek leave to continue my remarks. (Time expired)

Leave granted; debate adjourned.