Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to make a small contribution in this debate as well, because this is a very significant day, recording the 13th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation. Unlike Senator Dodson, Senator Wong and a number of others, I wasn't in the parliament on the day of the apology being delivered, but I certainly was watching at home, like millions of other Australians. You didn't need to be here to recognise the importance of the apology, the importance of that day, watching the reaction of First Nations people to finally having the truth of the injustice perpetrated upon them recognised by a prime minister of this country. And, as other speakers have said, it was a day of healing for our country. It was an important day, and it was really the start of more work that remains ongoing to reach true justice for our First Nations people.

It was also the day that the Closing the Gap statement was launched by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and that was an important act in its own right, to actually commit the Australian government and all of us to targets to once and for all close the unacceptable gap that Indigenous Australians experience in so many aspects of their lives. I noted from the speech given today by the Labor leader, Mr Albanese, that we talk about 'closing the gap' but that is really a polite way of describing what is really a chasm between the experience of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

In preparing these remarks, I asked my office to get some statistics on the state of that gap, or, more correctly, that chasm, in my own home state of Queensland. Some of the most recent figures are that the unemployment rate for First Nations people in my state of Queensland was 20.2 per cent in 2018-19, three times higher than that of non-Indigenous Queenslanders. In 2018-19, 50.8 per cent of 15- to 64-year-old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders were employed, compared with 74.1 per cent of non-Indigenous Queenslanders.

There remains a dreadful gap in the life expectancy of our First Peoples compared to the rest of us: nationally, for males it remains 7.8 years and for females 6.8 years. I could go on with statistics about school attendance, about qualifications, about incarceration and, most particularly, as already has been discussed by Senator Dodson and other speakers, about the unacceptable level of the removal of First Nations children into state care that continues to go on to this day. I mean, it's not ironic—I can't really think of the term to describe us delivering speeches today on the stolen generation when we still have First Nations children being removed from their families at several times the rate of other Australians. Undoubtedly, there are many, many instances where the removal of a child is the correct response to a particular situation, but, if we continue to have Indigenous children being removed at several times the rate of non-Indigenous children, we have a problem. There is a deeper problem that needs to be addressed, and it is not just a problem for Indigenous people; it is a problem for all of us. It is a problem that all of us have a responsibility in trying to fix in cooperation with our First Peoples.

One of the things that really brought home to me the level of disadvantage that our First Peoples continue to experience was a trip I had to Aurukun in Cape York last year, and it really brought home the stark reality of the conditions in which our First Peoples continue to live, in our country. Like so many of the rest of us, I've read the statistics and I've read the figures on overcrowding in housing in Indigenous communities. But, possibly to my shame, it wasn't until I actually went to Aurukun and met with families—everywhere I went was I hearing about houses with families of up to 30 people, in some cases even 40 people, living in two- and three-bedroom homes, just after we had emerged from the worst of the COVID crisis. So, at the very time when all of us had been out there telling people across the country how important it is to maintain social distancing to preserve our health, at the very same time, we were leaving, and continue to leave, Indigenous families in communities all across our country living in conditions where there is no choice but to have severe overcrowding. It's worth remembering that we are talking about people who are highly vulnerable because of their very poor health condition.

So, how is it that, at a time when Australia is going through the worst health crisis that we have seen in decades, when we have millions of dollars being spent on advertising campaigns telling people about the importance of social distancing and sanitation—at the very same time—we continue to leave families in communities right across this country in conditions which are Third World and which do expose them to greater risk because of the level of overcrowding?

That is despite the fact that we have had commitments from this government to spend millions of dollars to fix Indigenous housing. I can tell you, having been into these communities, that money is not hitting the ground. That housing is not being built and that is, therefore, leaving people in overcrowded conditions that are a danger to their health—let alone all of the other social harms that arise from that level of overcrowding.

Unfortunately, we still see that level of neglect and inaction from this government, just as we saw it 13 years ago, when members of this government, who are still in this parliament today, wouldn't even be in the chamber when the apology was being given. That same attitude, unfortunately, is still reflected, too often, in the language that we hear from members of this government, including the Prime Minister. It is often said by members of this government that addressing the legitimate concerns of our First Peoples creates division within the community. How many times have we heard that? When ideas are being put up about how we can actually achieve reconciliation: 'No, no, no. We can't do that, because that will divide us. That will create division.' We even saw it this year around Australia Day, when the Prime Minister chose to equalise the experience of First Nations people, who have gone through literally genocide, with others in our country, talking about the First Fleet and the arrival of the First Fleet and it not being a flash day for everyone on the First Fleet either. Of course it wasn't a flash day for everyone on the First Fleet, but to equalise that with the experience of anyone with a culture who has experienced genocide is, I think, more than tasteless. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the ongoing needs and the legitimate desires of our First Peoples, and, unfortunately, we continue to see that attitude displayed in the government's policy responses as well.

It's not just a matter of the language that is chosen. We see it with the government rejecting the Uluru Statement from the Heart and rejecting calls for a First Nations Voice to this parliament, based on the blatant lie that that amounts to a third chamber of the parliament. It is deeply unfortunate that, 13 years on from an apology to the stolen generations, we continue to see mistruths being perpetrated by members of this government to discount and avoid delivering on the legitimate aspirations of our First Peoples. We all have a responsibility to listen to Senator Dodson, to the other First Nations members of this parliament and to all First Nations people across this country, who have been waiting so long to be properly listened to and to have their aspirations achieved. I know that I for one, and everyone on this side of the chamber, support those aspirations, and that is why we so passionately support enshrining a First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution.