Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion to take note of the apology given today in this place and in the other place. I do so with great pleasure and to make a contribution to this debate on this historic occasion. We, as people, can be terrible and flawed creatures at times. We can inflict harms that make most cringe. We can do wrongs that we dare not speak of. We can inflict wilful pain upon each other and on the environment around us. However, thankfully, very few of us are guilty of inflicting wilful, deliberate acts of pain. Most of us, when we inflict pain or harm, are often ignorant of the pain we are causing. Most of us act with the best of intentions, however right, wrong or misguided those intentions may prove to be in future years and in retrospect.

Today this parliament has taken a stand and apologised for the wrongs of the past committed against the Indigenous peoples of Australia. We have made this expression of sorrow both for the harms inflicted wilfully by some and for the inadvertent or unintended harms of many. As the Liberal Party leader in the other place said in his, I thought, very moving and worthwhile contribution to the apology, each generation lives in ignorance of the long-term consequences of its decisions and actions. Even when motivated by inherent humanity and decency to reach out to the dispossessed in extreme adversity, our actions can have unintended consequences. Consequences unintended and, sadly, in some cases intended, certainly did cause harms and wrong to many of our Indigenous people over the years. They were recognised in the historic Bringing them home report released in 1997. Whilst it has taken some time, today this place has done the right thing. Although I may wish it had been done earlier, I am very proud to be a member of the parliament which has said, I believe very genuinely, deeply and overwhelmingly in very heartfelt and sincere terms, that we are sorry for those wrongs which were committed. We have heard many comments in this place and elsewhere reciting very tragic and personal stories of children removed forcibly from loving families, the fact that many people lost touch with their culture or background, others who were forced into child labour, and some, sadly, who were beaten or sexually abused. These are the challenges which generations of Indigenous people have faced and have brought to bear in coming to where we are today. Against that backdrop and many other challenges and issues over the years, it is little wonder that we see the extent of despair, adversity and disadvantage that exists across our Indigenous communities.

As I said earlier in this place, I hope today will mark not just an expression of sorrow but the beginning of healing, a process of forgiveness and, most importantly, an opportunity to move forward. Like many, I know that our Indigenous communities are suffering very deeply. Prior to coming to this place, working at the Winemakers Federation of Australia, I spent time trying to grapple with issues of alcohol and substance abuse, travelling around Alice Springs and the town camps nearby with officers of the Northern Territory Licensing Commission. In those trips it became very clear to me that not just the harms created as a result of that direct abuse but the many wrongs committed over the years gave people a sense of dispossession, having no sense of hope or future about their lives.

I hope in delivering some sense of closure today in this very broadly worded motion that we can achieve progress in many aspects of the tragic history and relationship with Indigenous Australia and ensure that today’s Indigenous people, and most importantly the generations to come, enjoy hope and opportunity and feel a sense of worth and wellbeing in our community. We, as parliamentarians, need to make today stand as a proud day in our history. We will only do that if the current government and future governments back up today’s words with action. The symbolism of today must go hand in hand with true, meaningful, practical steps. We must ensure the investment is there to genuinely tackle the ills in Aboriginal communities, the disadvantages in health care and education standards and the need for policing and put a stop to the abuse and violence in our Aboriginal communities that we have seen so widely reported.

It is a challenge that many have, sadly, failed to meet. Failure is reflected in the statistics and in the lives of many broken people in Aboriginal communities. The challenge now falls upon the shoulders of the new government and on each of us, as parliamentarians, to ensure that policies and actions follow up the very great words spoken today in this place and in the other place. I say to the new government that this symbolic step is not enough. It is important. It is a great step, but I hope it will be the first of many steps to deliver a strong and proud future for our Indigenous peoples.

In my first speech to this place just a few months ago, last year, I spoke of the hope that I would see and make a contribution to Indigenous people becoming free of suppression, paternalism or welfarism and enjoying incentives and the respect of the community. Today we have shown enormous respect in this place. I am very proud to have seen that occur, but there is much to be done to ensure the incentives and opportunities that I spoke of.

I note that I am not the only person to have referred back to their first speech, though mine was more recent than most in here—I note Senator Wong, Senator Payne and others have referenced their first speeches in relation to their commitment to healing the wounds in Indigenous Australia and creating advantage and opportunity. So many of us have made that commitment in what is perhaps our most important speech in this place: our first speech. I hope that we can genuinely see that commitment through in the same type of bipartisan, well-meaning and well-spirited manner that we have today, because that is what our Indigenous peoples need. Indeed, we will be much prouder and a much stronger country if today’s steps can be taken forward to deliver hope and opportunity for future Indigenous peoples.