Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the resolution of the Senate and the extension of the apology on behalf of the parliament to the members of the stolen generation and their families and, indeed, to all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous people of this country. It is often said that words have no real meaning without actions, that words can never hurt. But that old saying that ‘sticks and stones can break your bones but words will never hurt you’ is not true. Words are powerful. Words can hurt. But words can heal.

Today, through this apology—through these remarkable words—we are endeavouring to help to heal. We apologise for the wrongs of the past and, indeed, we apologise for the mistreatment and neglect that still continues today. That is why it is so important for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—for the Indigenous people—of this great nation. They have known all along how important the apology would be to them. They know that it does not necessarily right all the wrongs, but they know how deeply important it is that we extend this apology. We, the non-Indigenous people of this country, have finally come to understand the power of the words that an apology would have: that it would mark a turning point in the history of this nation, when we finally, in a public way, at the level of the parliament of this nation, extended this apology.

I listened to the speech of the Prime Minister and I heard the speech of the Leader of the Government in the Senate today. I listened to other speeches and there is not really much that I can add to what has been said, because it has been said. Rather than trying, as it were, to be eloquent about it in my own terms, I simply adopt and endorse the words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Government in the Senate and of the other leaders and representatives of this parliament. I cannot do it any better. Whilst today it is important to reflect upon what was in the Bringing them home report, it is also important to recognise that an apology can often be a simple statement and more powerful. Saying that you are sorry without qualification should say it all—and I hope it does. I read the report a couple of years ago and I have listened to the recounting of the stories of those stolen generations. Like all senators and members, I feel and try to understand the terrible circumstances in which many of those people had to grow up, torn from their families and their loved ones.

Where I come from—the Sutherland Shire—is often characterised as the birthplace of the Australian nation, when Captain Cook landed at what is now Kurnell on 29 April 1770. For many years, that date was commemorated and celebrated as the date of the birth of the Australian nation. Each year, a ceremony would be held at Kurnell on the shores of Botany Bay. But some years ago we realised—the Sutherland Shire Council and others—that that was not appropriate. Rather, we had to recognise on that same day that it was also the day when the dispossession of the lands of the Indigenous people commenced to occur in this country. So, the commemoration was changed from one which celebrated and commemorated not only Cook’s great voyage of discovery and his landing in Australia at Botany Bay, but also a meeting of two cultures and a symbolic day for the Aboriginal people. Now, each year on 29 April, that ceremony not only celebrates Cook’s landing but also recognises the incredible impact that that event ultimately had on the Indigenous people of this country. Each year, representatives of the Indigenous community of that area participate in that ceremony in a way that we saw yesterday with the welcome to country here in Parliament House. It is now celebrated and commemorated—not as an achievement or a dispossession, which it was, depending on whether you look at it from the perspective of white Australia or the perspective of Indigenous people—but rather as a meeting of two cultures and an opportunity to go forward and endeavour to ensure that the culture of the Indigenous people of this country is protected and enriched.

Yesterday I attended the ecumenical service at St Christopher’s here in Manuka for the opening of parliament and I was impressed by the sermon of Archbishop Coleridge. I recall that in March 2000 Pope John Paul VI expressed sorrow for the treatment that the Catholic Church had over centuries meted out to people of the Jewish faith. I raise that because at the heart of Christianity is the concept of expressing sorrow, and I think that it is in that context that we—certainly those of us who follow the Christian faith—should also consider this event.

It is not about whether or not we personally were responsible for the misdeeds or mistreatment—the massacres, the dispossession—that occurred in the past. It may certainly be a historical fact that we personally are not responsible. But that is not the point. The point is that if we believe in righting the wrongs of the past it is appropriate for us to express our sorrow and an apology for those deeds that were done in the past.

When I hear speakers refer to what has happened with the Northern Territory intervention as a result of the Little children are sacred report, I ask myself: why is it that some of us can recognise that that mistreatment needs to be dealt with now but somehow we should ignore, or not recognise, the importance of all of the mistreatment that has gone before it. Indeed, much of what is happening today within those Aboriginal communities that we are endeavouring to fix through that intervention is a result of that legacy. I sincerely apologise to the stolen generations.