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

In this NAIDOC Week, with its theme of 'Always Was, Always Will Be,' I wish to acknowledge all the old people who've paved the way for Aboriginal people to be sitting in this chamber and in the other place. Imagine if those who took part in the day of mourning in 1938, the year of Australia's 150th anniversary, could witness the attendance in the federal parliament nowadays of six First Nations members and senators—although I dare say they might be bemused by the party allegiances we have!

This Senate has its rules and protocols. Mostly they serve to accord dignity and respect for us as politicians. But yesterday, the third day of NAIDOC Week, we lost an important motion to fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in this chamber. To have our flags alongside the Australian flag would have enhanced our maturity as a modern democracy, in control of our own destiny. In time, the display could have become like the kangaroo and emu on the Coat of Arms that sits proudly above the President's seat. If I were a cynic, and I'm not, I could conclude that the flora and fauna still have precedence above the First Nations peoples of this country.

What principle or protocol did the naysayers rely on yesterday to block those flags from being displayed here? The government told us that the Australian national flag is the only 'appropriate' flag to be flown in the Senate chamber. What, I ask, is inappropriate about flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags? They're both recognised as Australian flags under the Flags Act 1953. What adverse reactions do those opposite really fear would flow if our flags were on display? What is it that this government is really afraid of? It seems to me that it's just incapable of envisaging that our flags would be a complementing adornment to the Australian national flag that the government says represents all Australians. Our flags fly all over towns on any other day. Out the front of this building right now, there are 44 flags flying, and only 16 of them are the Australian national flag. What are the other 28? They're the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. There's a line-up that represents all Australians. They're good enough for display outside Parliament House during NAIDOC Week but not good enough to be flown in this house. We need more generosity around this here.

Yesterday I had the honour of launching a book, Unbreakable Rock. It has resonance with 'Always Was, Always Will Be'. The book was written by an old friend of mine, the late Michael Bowden, who used to play for Richmond. Michael found a new meaning to life through his experience as a teacher and a community worker in Central Australia and through his friendships forged with a precious circle of Arrernte women. His book is about discovering mystery through the lens of the Arrernte people's belief in Altyerre. Most of you would think of Altyerre as the Dreaming, but it's more than that. It's about a state of being. It's about the interrelationship and connectivity between humans and humans, humans and creation and humans and the creator, in whatever form that may be.

Mike Bowden passed away earlier this year, but his legacy of having followed the road less travelled is preserved in his book. I commend it to others in this chamber for reading over Christmas. You might take up the books referred to by the leader of the Labor Party in this place as well. You would read, for example, Mike's deconstruction of the Lord's Prayer, which opens the proceedings of this place every morning. For instance, when we say, 'Forgive us our sins,' the Arrernte rendition is, 'Walk with us in our troubles.' Reflecting on such perspectives may assist you to overcome any inhibitions you might hold about truly recognising First Nations peoples in this parliament.

My friend Mike Bowden and his Aboriginal informants came from two very different belief systems, of course. But they found a new and common ground out of mutual trust, respect and genuine communication. That relationship led Michael to plumb the depths of Arrernte spirituality and ponder how those Arrernte women were able to accommodate and practice Catholicism in spite of colonialism, settlement and Christian dogma.

What's clear to me is that, historically, accommodation in this country has been one way. That's been the pattern of our relationship since colonisation and settlement. The colonisers yield very little or nothing and expect—demand, even—that First Nations peoples fall in behind. We need to understand each other better, to realise our fragility as humans, in spite of the sublime technical achievements we've made—a fragility and fickleness that are laid bare in the face of the forces of nature, like floods and famines and fires. Without a sincere and honest dialogue across cultural and social divides, we'll continue to be ignorant of the rich contributions we can make to each other. In Michael Bowden's case, he was prepared to listen and learn, and he reaped great personal benefit from that shared experience.

Why is it that this government cannot listen and learn? What passes as consultation when it comes to developing policies affecting First Nations peoples is often a hollow sham. Take, for example, the government's intention to foist the cashless debit card onto 25,000 welfare recipients in the Northern Territory; more than 80 per cent of them are Aboriginal people. I've had Aboriginal people from Central Australia come to my office here in parliament and tell me they don't want the card. They want to be rid of the income management system. They want the government to get out of their lives. But the government remains hell-bent on wanting to punish the poor and telling them how they should spend their money.

And why hasn't this government been prepared to accept without qualification the Uluru Statement from the Heart and all its three components—voice, treaty, truth—and the explicit wish of First Nations peoples that a voice to parliament be enshrined in the Constitution? We on our side have been unwavering in our support for the Uluru statement in full. It's more than 3½ years since the Uluru convention that was preceded by over 13 regional national dialogues across the country. First Nations have spoken already. Why hasn't this government simply accepted the Uluru statement—rather than waiting to mould and manipulate a statement into a pattern for its own purposes—as we in the Labor opposition have?

This NAIDOC Week is really an opportunity to celebrate, but it's also an opportunity for some hard-headed reflections on what's happening to First Nations peoples in their environment right now. We can't ignore the simmering outrage against blights on our psyche and on our landscape, like the destruction of those 46,000-year-old caves at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara. With other members of the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia, I saw firsthand last week the catastrophe which has been visited upon the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people and the Pinikura people. We saw the irreplaceable damage and we witnessed the grief and sorrow of the people. Then there's the shimmering outrage against the persistent and disproportionate rates of incarceration and black deaths in custody and the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. We can do better as a nation.

'Always will, always will be' is the theme of NAIDOC Week. The real celebration should be that, despite the society we live in, First Nations have survived. One day we will be rightly recognised and one day, I hope, our flags will adorn this chamber.