Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This parliament meets on the traditional lands of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and we pay our respects to their elders past and present. It is a parliament that also has the honour of representing the traditional owners of this entire continent—a land with which our First Australians have been intimately connected for over 65,000 years. It represents the Yuin people in the south-east, the Yawuru people in the north-west, the Yolngu people of Yirrkala in the north, the Muwinina people in the south, the Noongar people of the south-west, the Meriam Mir in the Torres Strait, the Kaurna people in South Australia, the Pitjantjatjara people of the Central Desert and many more.

It is important that we recognise and honour the culture and heritage of our First Australians, and it is important that we recognise and mourn the indignity and the suffering that they have endured since the colonisation of this ancient land. The arrival of disease, the expulsion of peoples from their traditional lands, the separation of children from their parents, the loss of identity and the marginalisation of entire communities decimated our first peoples. This is what Prime Minister Keating acknowledged when he spoke at Redfern 25 years ago and declared:

… the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians.

It begins, I think, with that act of recognition.

Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing.

It was this recognition that Prime Minister Rudd brought to account when he issued the Apology to the Stolen Generations 10 years ago. And we remember that day, a day of remembrance, a day of sadness, a day of extraordinary nobility and a day of grace because our First Australian peoples found it in their hearts to accept an apology offered by the government on behalf of those who had brought such suffering. In the spirit of healing, our First Australians rose above grievance and resentment to accept our sorrow.

But saying sorry isn't enough and, whilst repentance is one thing, doing something about it is another. So, it was Prime Minister Rudd who set about repairing the injustice of two centuries and who set about restoring equity to peoples who had been dispossessed. He, with Jenny Macklin's strong support, had the courage, foresight and imagination to institute the Closing the Gap program, to redress disadvantage and inequality through a targeted program of action that would tackle the key areas in which the prospects of Indigenous Australians had to be improved.

The Closing the Gap report card is mixed, and all of us share in the responsibility for this. But I must say that achieving these deliberately tough goals was made so much harder by this government's cuts of $500 million from Aboriginal programs. Senator Dodson, who will follow me in this debate, hit the nail on the head on Friday morning. Quite appropriately, he hammered the Prime Minister for walking out of the Closing the Gap campaign meeting early, as though Indigenous issues were of a lower priority than anything else. He said:

It's indicative of the deafness, of the absolute derision and the contempt which this government is meting out to the Aboriginal people. We gotta get real about it.

That is the point: we do have to get real. This government has to get real.

Let's have a quick look at the government's performance in this critical area. Last year, only one target was on track: the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. Four of the seven targets are not on track. They are life expectancy, employment, reading and numeracy, and school attendance. Three of these targets were due this year. There are three targets which are on track: child mortality rates, early education and year 12 attainment. You will note that in some ways only two of these targets are really about closing the gap: life expectancy and school attendance. Early education specifies a 95 per cent participation rate. The other three, in many ways, might be regarded as soft targets, halving the gap rather than closing it.

If we are serious about the refresh, then it must create more opportunity and not less. The key to creating more opportunity for First Australians is to empower them to take control of their own lives, to manage their own affairs and to plan their own futures, and to do all of this with the support of government but not under the direction of government. We do know what doesn't work: top-down decision-making; bureaucratic, centralised service provision; and the exclusion or minimisation of Aboriginal authority and participation. As Senator Dodson said this morning:

This is really about the future of Aboriginal people having a quality of life in this country, and for all of us in politics to ensure we can collaborate in an effective way with the states and with Aboriginal organisations to get these results.

What is the alternative? What does Labor intend to do? First, we want to press ahead on closing the gap, meeting real targets and improving outcomes for First Australians. Second, we want to back that up with complementary actions that address the consequences of discrimination and disadvantage. Mr Shorten today announced in the House of Representatives that a Labor government will establish a stolen generations compensation scheme.

Over the past decade, state governments around the country of both political persuasions have established different forms of compensation schemes for members of the stolen generations. They remain a work in progress, but we do know there are around 150 or more members of the stolen generations who were the direct responsibility of the Commonwealth government who have received no financial compensation at all. They are still waiting for 'sorry' to be matched by making good. It's time the government lived up to its rhetoric, and that is why Labor will offer each of the survivors removed from their families, country and culture an ex gratia payment of $75,000 and a one-off payment to cover funeral costs. As Mr Shorten said, compensation is about resolving some of the unfinished business of the apology. I also note that this promise meets an original recommendation of the Bringing them home report from over 20 years ago. Regrettably, these payments come too late for many members of the stolen generations. We also recognise that the trauma of forced removal reverberates through the generations—hence the commitment to an additional $10 million of programs to assist with the healing of stolen generations members and their descendants, to be administered by the Healing Foundation.

Reconciliation and making amends are not about confronting the failures of the past; they are about ensuring that such failures are not repeated. Today there are over 17,500 first nations children who are growing up away from country and culture—twice as many as 10 years ago, when Closing the Gap began. Twenty years ago, 20 per cent of the children in out-of-home care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; today it is 35 per cent and rising. The Northern Territory royal commission highlighted the stark reality that incarceration is the lot of far too many young people from broken homes and dysfunctional families. It isn't acceptable, because jails aren't places in which young people should be growing up. We all have to do better, and that is why Labor has called for justice targets. I disagree fundamentally with the minister's statement today that such targets are daft. They provide accountability and they provide an objective measure by which governments of all political persuasions and at all levels can work to improve outcomes for our young people.

We also call on the government to provide new funding for the Remote Indigenous Housing Program. Without a roof over your head, you can't be healthy, you can't receive education and you can't be safe. It is a fundamental right, and we on this side are astonished that the government isn't prepared to indicate ongoing financial Commonwealth support for this program. Many children in out-of-home care lead lives of trauma and broken trust. We need to understand that, when we are talking about achieving a certain goal by 2028 or 2030, it is these children that we are counting on to get it done. We are putting our faith in these kids getting a great education, finding decent jobs and being role models for others. There's nothing more important than the safety of our children and there is no time more precious and influential than the early years of life.

As I said earlier, the solutions to the issues identified by Closing the Gap must be authored, owned and controlled by First Australians. This includes a meaningful say by First Australians in the decisions that affect their lives—a voice to the parliament. The statement from the heart delivered at Uluru was not what many expected, but, after decades of parliaments delivering well-intentioned, incremental disappointments, who are we to say that this idea is too big, that is it too bold and—the refuge of many scoundrels—that it is unconstitutional? Who are we to say that, when it comes to constitutional change, we're capable only of minimalism? And who are we to tell 1,200 representatives from 12 regional dialogues, 'Go back to the drawing board and try again'? As the Leader of the Opposition has said, it is time for us to be better and braver. It is time we took the Uluru Statement from the Heart into our hearts and worked together to deliver on its key recommendations: a voice enshrined in the Constitution; a declaration, to be passed by all parliaments, acknowledging the unique place of our First Australians in Australian history, their cultures and their connection to the land; and a makarrata commission to oversee a process of agreement making and truth telling. This is not much to ask.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for what both sides of this parliament say we are committed to: a genuine partnership, real empowerment and solutions constructed by first nations people. Six months ago, after Garma, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister proposing a joint parliamentary committee to put momentum behind makarrata and to work towards finalising a referendum question, and that invitation stands. Bipartisanship doesn't mean an agreement to do nothing. If the current stalemate can't be broken, if the government cannot reconsider its rejection of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, we on this side will not let the matter rest. The next Labor government will, as a first step, look to legislate for a voice to parliament.

I was in this parliament on the day of the apology, and I count it as one of the finest moments that I have been privileged to witness in this parliament, if not the finest moment. I have also been here at every Closing the Gap speech since that time, and I have heard some wonderful speeches. I have heard many fine words. But we have heard a lot of defence and justification for results which have not been good enough. So now we need to listen, not just talk. The gap can be closed, and it is our First Australians who will show us how.