Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I take great pleasure in moving this motion. I first want to acknowledge all the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet today. I want to acknowledge the presence of many Indigenous peoples in the parliament and its surrounds who are part of what we know as the stolen generations. I also want to acknowledge the many Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, across Australia who are listening or watching the parliament this morning—although probably the House of Representatives.

Today is a very important occasion in the history of our nation and this parliament. Today is not just about our past; it is also about our future. For many Australians, today means confronting and accepting what has gone before and acknowledging our values of civility, fairness and compassion, which hopefully will guide us in our future endeavours. I move:

That—Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.We reflect on their past mistreatment.We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

Nearly 10 years ago, on 27 May 1997, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released its report Bringing them home. The report was the result of a national inquiry established by the Keating government in August 1995. The report was dedicated to the generations of Aboriginal children taken from their families and communities who are still searching for home and to the memory of the children who will never return. The inquiry visited every state and territory and most regions of Australia. It took evidence in public and private from Indigenous people, government and church representatives, former mission staff, foster and adoptive parents, doctors and health professionals, academics, police and others. Most hearings were conducted by Sir Ronald Wilson, the HREOC President, and Mick Dodson, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. We are indebted to these two great Australians.

In each major region throughout Australia an Indigenous commissioner was appointed to assist with the hearings. An Indigenous advisory council with representatives from all the regions also assisted the inquiry. A total of 770 people and organisations provided evidence or a submission. Some 535 were Indigenous people. Most had been removed as children; others were parents, siblings or children of removed children. The report found that somewhere between one in three and one in 10 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families between 1910 and 1970. We do not know how many were separated prior to 1910. Indeed, we do not know with certainty how many children were removed from their families, but we do know that Indigenous children were placed in institutions and church missions, were adopted or fostered and were at risk of physical and sexual abuse. Many, of course, did not receive wages for their labour. The practice was on such a large scale and over such a long period, continuing so close to the present day, that its effect cannot be dismissed as only applying to olden times. It is our responsibility. The truth is in the past and is very much with us today in the effect on the lives of Indigenous Australians.

There are some, I know, who still believe that the removal of Indigenous children was good. Some removals, it is argued, were part of a broad welfare system which decided what was in the best interests of the children. But the truth is that the stolen generations were removed from their families because of their culture, their colour and their race, because they were considered inferior and because non-Indigenous Australians thought that they could do better.

Thousands of Indigenous people grew up without the love of their parents or the love of their brothers and sisters. Many never knew who they were or where they came from. These policies did break down families, clans and tribes and played a key role in dislocating communities, depriving many of them of the bonds that bind communities and depriving them of family and cultural legacies.

After the release of the report, many of the stolen generations made a request for an apology. They said that this would have meaning by showing that Australians recognised their hurt and pain and accepted that what had been done to them was wrong. It was a heartfelt request because, they said, this would help the healing process. The stolen generations are real people. Let us think of them as individuals as well. It is to them that we belatedly offer our apology.

Since that time, apologies have been given in state parliaments in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania and in the parliaments of the ACT and the Northern Territory. Words of apology have been said in churches, in public meetings and in private conversations. They have been discussed and debated Australia wide. But until now no apology has been offered in this place by an Australian government. And that has been wrong. The stolen generations have been deeply damaged by the decisions of this parliament and of governments. Their suffering was a product of the deliberate policies of the state as reflected in the explicit powers given under statute.

There are countless moving stories from the many thousands of Aboriginal people who were taken from their families involuntarily. I was particularly touched by the story of Sandra Hill, who says today’s apology from the parliament will be the biggest thing to happen in her life. I would like to recount part of her story, which was published in the Sunday Times of Perth last weekend, for the benefit of the Senate today.

Sandra is a professional artist, a mother of three children and grandmother to five children, who lives in the south-west of Western Australia in Balingup. Sandra is also a strong, resilient and proud Nyungar woman who was forcibly taken from her parents in 1958 at the age of six. Along with her two sisters and younger brother, Sandra was taken to Sister Kate’s Children’s Home, where they lived for two years before being fostered out to a white family. It would be 27 years before those children saw their parents again.

I would like to recount some of Sandra’s story, as only her words can do justice to the experiences that she and her family have endured. She said:

You can’t begin to imagine the sense of loss that I, and so many like me, have experienced. My children were the first ‘free’ children born into my family for four generations and I celebrate every day that we share together as a family.

She also said:

My heart aches for my Mum and Dad—to lose a child is bad enough, to lose four young children in one foul swoop is incomprehensible.

                  …              …              …

Our removal forced Mum to not only relive her own experiences, but also that of her father and grandfather (both were ‘surrendered’ to the monks at New Norcia).

In 1933 the Native Welfare swooped down on my grandparents’ camp in Caversham. They took my mother Doreen ... and her sister Hilda, who were seven and ten at the time.

She was taken to Moore River Native Settlement and then transferred, due to her fair skin, to Sister Kate’s Home for Half Castes at Buckland Hill. The authorities changed her name and her birth date so that her parents couldn’t trace her.

                  …              …              …

... over a period of 23 years, from 1933, my grandparents lost six children to the welfare authorities, ending in 1956 with their youngest daughter Boronia.

Mum could barely talk about the family’s experience without enormous distress, even after 60 years.

                  …              …              …

No education, material gain or so-called ‘opportunities’ could or would ever be a fair trade-off for losing the ones you love. My family was my world and it was stolen from me and my siblings and, if I could go back in time I would choose to stay where I belonged, where my spirit and my heart still live, with my beloved mum and dad.

She goes on to say:

We don’t want to relegate blame or guilt—that would be counter productive. However, recognition and acknowledgement of the profound and far reaching effects that past policies have had on my people is critical in helping us to move forward into a more positive and inclusive future.

While working on committees of this parliament and in moving around the electorate, I have listened to many of the stolen generations tell us their stories over the years. You are always struck by the dignity with which those stories are told. The thing that strikes me most is the lack of bitterness—the lack of thought of vengeance. I defy anyone not to be moved by those stories. Do not think of them as ‘a generation’ or under the title we give them. Think of them as individual people.

It has been written that the pain and suffering cannot be addressed unless the whole community listens with an open heart and mind to the stories of what happened and, having listened and understood, commits itself to repairing the damage. It is awful to comprehend the pain and suffering of the children who were removed and the anguish of their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. The trauma of a removal is indescribable. Every parent fears the death of their children. The forcible separation from their children must have been equally traumatic. To have such a policy organised and sanctioned by the national government would only have added to the trauma and the feeling of helplessness.

The past is always with us. It shapes the present and the future. It shapes who we are and how we behave. It determines the colour of our thinking, and we can only progress when we acknowledge the good and the bad that have happened. It has taken nearly 11 years since the report was published, but this morning, in the other place, the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Australian parliament, offered an apology to the stolen generations. There is no more important place for these words to be said, because this parliament speaks for the nation. The Prime Minister apologised for the laws and policies of past governments which caused profound grief and loss for many Indigenous Australians. He promised that this will never happen again. He has committed us to a new beginning—a new national effort—and we must succeed.

The response of the nation to today’s apology has been wonderful. People are embracing the opportunity to do the right thing, to do what we teach our children to do, to say sorry for doing something hurtful and, more importantly, to mean it. Non-Indigenous Australians should be proud that we are strong enough as a people to admit the wrong and to say sorry.

I know that this is a day that many Indigenous Australians believed they would never live to see. It has been far too long coming. For that, I am sorry too. And we acknowledge those who did not live to see this day. To their descendents we say sorry for the pain and hurt suffered over generations and the loss of identity, family and country that can never be restored.

Much has been said and written in the past few weeks about the symbolism of an apology and its significance. Some people have argued that the symbolic act of saying sorry will somehow undermine or even replace the practical reforms needed to fix the huge gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I believe the opposite is true. I am mindful of what Sir William Deane said:

It is simply to assert our identity as a nation and the basic fact that national shame, as well as national pride, can and should exist in relation to past acts and omissions, at least when done or made in the name of the community or with the authority of government. Where there is no room for national pride or national shame about the past there can be no national soul.

Saying sorry gives us the impetus to move on. It reminds us of our responsibilities as citizens, as members of the Australian community, to help those in society less well-off. It is the next step in the huge task of closing the gap. Yes, it is arguably a symbolic gesture; but symbols are important by definition in sending a strong message, which I believe will help us tackle the substance of the issue: removing the inequalities that exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

We know that the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians remain dramatically worse than that of the rest of the community as a whole. Many still endure inadequate health services, overcrowded and substandard housing, poor access to education and barriers in getting a job. Alcohol and drugs are crippling communities and child abuse is evident. Entrenched health problems are denying Indigenous Australians a future, and progress to improve their health status has been slow under successive governments. The inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is stark. The 17-year life expectancy gap remains one of the starkest indicators of inequality in Australian society. Current rates of Indigenous life expectancy are comparable to those of other Australians in the 1920s. Third World diseases like rheumatic fever and trachoma persist, and there are high rates of chronic disease, including renal failure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The government, and I think the parliament, comprehend the enormity of closing this gap and we know it can only be done in a mutually responsible partnership with Indigenous Australians. That is why we seek the support of the whole parliament. The government is making a concerted effort to ensure the fundamentals of a decent life are shared by Indigenous Australians: good health and nutrition, a safe and comfortable home, a high-quality education and the opportunity to share in the dividends of our economy through work. We are determined to make sure that all children, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, have the same healthy future.

We have pledged to halve within a decade the gap in mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children under the age of five. Such goals, such targets, are important. In the same period we want to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy. To do this we are providing comprehensive funding for child and maternal health services, early development and parenting support, and literacy and numeracy in the early years. Health services are being expanded and improved. The government is prioritising the expansion of alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation services across the Northern Territory. We are also expanding sobering-up shelters in Katherine and Tennant Creek so that alcohol abusers can be accommodated in a safe environment.

Giving Indigenous children the best chance for a bright future requires a sound foundation of education and training. Literacy and numeracy are the building blocks, but currently the performance of Indigenous children often falls far behind. This is not good enough. We have no illusions about the extent and complexity of the challenges before us, but we must close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and we must close the infant mortality gap for young Indigenous children. What we must understand from the past is that we cannot do this for Indigenous Australians. Paternalism, new or old, does not work. We must find solutions together with Indigenous Australians and empower them to overcome the enormous barriers to equal opportunity in our society.

Today’s motion is very different from the way we normally conduct business. The motion will be supported by the alternative government and other senators around the chamber. That is vital for Indigenous Australians to accept this apology. It has to be from all of us and we have to mean it. Hopefully the broad support for the apology will be a platform for a more bipartisan approach to attack the inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

It is a regret that, in the past, Indigenous policy became an ideological issue to be fought over. It would be good to think that today marks an end to the ideological battles of the past and marks a willingness on all sides to work together with Indigenous Australians. For too long the ideological battles of politicians have been at the expense of Indigenous people. These are our challenges for the future. The responsibility for a just and equitable future for Indigenous Australians falls on all our shoulders. Today, this parliament, on behalf of the nation, has taken a powerful step in this regard.

The apology today is not about imposing guilt or shame on this generation of Australians. It is not about attributing personal blame. It is the acknowledgement of the injustices and mistakes of the past and it is an acceptance of what has happened. It can also be the next step in reconciliation. It is now up to us as a nation, as the Prime Minister pledged in the other place this morning, to bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians—government and opposition, Commonwealth and state—to write a new chapter in our nation’s story. I commend the motion to the Senate.