Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to thank my colleague Malarndirri McCarthy for attempting to put the humanity to human beings who otherwise would be numbers on a file. Two weeks ago we observed National Reconciliation Week, but the sad reality, then and now, is that our nation is far from reconciled. Just remember what we witnessed only a fortnight ago. In my home state of Western Australia, a sacred Aboriginal heritage site of world significance was destroyed, followed by an insincere apology by the company; the High Court ruled that the tear gassing of teenagers in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin was unlawful; and Black Lives Matter protests erupted here and around the world.

Fuelling the protests was the dreadful realisation that, since the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, nearly 440 Aboriginal people have died in custody. Without answers, this breeds fear of foul play being at work. I was one of the six royal commissioners back then, but our report did not support the initial expectation of foul play. A death in custody does not, as a fact, impute guilt or culpability to the officers in attendance or to the institution per se. It does raise the question of what happened when the death occurred and why the person came to be in custody.

The then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Robert Tickner, tabled our report in May 1991 and noted that the most significant contributor to incarceration was the disadvantage of Aboriginal people in every way, whether socially, economically or culturally. Mr Tickner told the parliament, and the report highlighted:

The dispossession and subordination within a dominant and often hostile society frequently motivated self-interest, the development of racist attitudes both overt and hidden and the way in which these attitudes became institutionalised in the very practices of legal, educational, welfare and Aboriginal assistance authorities.

The fact that hundreds of Aboriginal persons have died in custody since the royal commission diminishes us all as a nation. We must ask ourselves: What are the common themes that drive this continuing subjugation of First Nations? What are the underlying factors through which First Nations people have become destabilised, disempowered and dispossessed? And why have our good intentions and resolve failed to make any difference?

There is no pride in seeing First Nations people so reduced by societal factors from within and without that they are perceived as exceptional recipients of government largesse, not worthy of restorative justice and denied true equality of opportunity in our society. Why is it so difficult for the descendants of the settler and colonist to have the necessary discussion about uncomfortable truths? The First Nations know the shortfalls in their societies and have been trying to address them for some time, but they will not advance without true partnership and change. Incarceration and out-of-home care for children present questions of moral, ethical and legal substance that go to the heart of our willingness to deal with our relationship and understanding of each other. Deaths in custody is not just about policing and incarceration rates; it goes to the legacy of dispossession and disempowering of First Nations. Subjugation goes to the point of interaction of First Nations and mainstream society manifested in our schools, workplaces, shops, hospitals, real estate agencies and in other places. It is also embedded in the institutions that administer the many services and often in our public institutions. It's in our Constitution. Mr Menzies recognised that in relation to section 51(xxvi), the race power. That is why First Nations want a voice to parliament and at regional and local levels: to stop the subjugation.

Australian racism explains the deep distrust felt by First Nations people towards our institutions and agendas of assimilation and adoption of those. It explains why we are not surprised, but are still outraged, when First Nations people are locked up behind bars, even if they are responsible for breaking the law. Systematically, First Nations people have been treated as inferior and deficient and tolerated through condescension. This has brought subjugation, destabilisation and disempowerment in order for those of non-Indigenous society to remain confident in their positions of privilege and power.

The royal commission report identified the impact of that exclusion. Commissioner Elliott Johnston, the esteemed Queens Counsel, wrote back then:

… he had no real idea of the degree of "pinpricking domination, abuse of personal power, utter paternalism, open contempt and total indifference" which confronted Aboriginal people in their everyday lives, with no personal control over one's own children, one's employment, personal savings and decisions as to whether to buy a car or other personal belongings.

Commissioner Johnston pointed out:

… communities—

then were—

faced with a multiplicity of grants which effectively mean that agendas are being set elsewhere, that assumptions as to what is best for Aboriginal people are made elsewhere.

That was 30 years ago. What's changed in the decades since? I say that if there's been any change it's been for the worse. Maybe with the Aboriginal peak organisations at the table these days we'll get institutional change. Thirty years on, we are all still optimistic.

First Nations peoples have never ceded their sovereign claims to their lands and waters. They've never entered a treaty on the terms of their subjugation. They remain sovereign peoples. Now more than ever, Australia cannot afford to be unreconciled. We must accept that this nation is in transition, confronted by the necessity of the voice to parliament, constitutional recognition, truth telling and agreement making. We must avoid going down the path of seeing history as a set of competitive narratives and instead work towards the pursuit of truth and respect. We need a political settlement on questions of national independence, integrity, and identity. Two hundred and fifty years of avoiding these fundamental questions has handicapped us as a nation from navigating the complex challenges before us and left us unable to capitalise on the great opportunities of a future together.

We feel this confusion in our public discourse, with well-meaning policy objectives failing to meet the expectations of modern multicultural Australia—standards we recognise when crossed but seem unwilling to speak about honestly. We've seen generations of political leaders come and go, blindly touching for a sense of common ground and common identity, without addressing the darkness of dispossession and racism, keeping us chained to the ethnocentric understanding of Australia's identity—one that has never really been true. We have a system unable to understand or celebrate diversity and difference, and First Nations are left to deal with a bureaucratic machine that has often been a tool more of oppression than of liberation. We see this shortcoming in our geospatial engagement with the world. With a new form of imperialism emerging, Australia, without a robust and honest civic identity, simply cannot stand on its own two feet.

Amidst the culture wars, it's easy to forget that there is a purpose in national reconciliation. It's not a purely academic question. We labour for the cause of reconciliation to seek a political settlement and bring a sense of unity to our Australian project. Indeed, the ceremonial makarrata brings two parties in disagreement to resolve their differences and become as one. We're all the lesser for its absence, whether we're descendants of the First Fleet, migrants or, indeed, First Nations.

During this pandemic, we've learned a lot about resilience. The nation can learn a lot about resilience from the First Nations people. The path forward has been offered to us through the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The parliament must honour that call and listen to the torment of the powerlessness that continues to haunt this place. Only then will we continue on the path of reconciliation, built on honour, equality, recognition and respect and free from racism.