Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is as good a time as there will be for me to ask about Indigenous culture and languages. What is the government’s plan to vouchsafe Indigenous culture and languages? These are important. Our own culture and language is part of who we are and part of the essence of our pride in ourselves and the wherewithal to be fulfilled in life. There is very great concern about this move by the government, integrating Indigenous people into non-Indigenous culture in a way that sheds their Indigenous culture out behind them. That would be an absolute and cruel tragedy. The whole world is full of experiences where you do not do that, including in this country. We know that the government has defunded programs for Indigenous languages in the last year or two. What is the funding base and the plan in this comprehensive and quite historic move to skill Indigenous people to be able to have a more rewarding role in the Australia of the 21st century to ensure that the price isn’t the further loss of Aboriginal culture and languages?