Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Prime Minister, I table a ministerial statement on the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

Today we reflect on the anniversary of the apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, given here in the Australian parliament, on Ngunawal land, 13 years ago. We take this opportunity to honour the local custodians, the Ngunawal people, and the First Peoples across all of our great southern land. I join the Prime Minister in thanking them and their elders, past, present and emerging, for 65,000 years of continuous stewardship of our land.

We also honour the immense contributions being made by our Indigenous parliamentary colleagues serving in this parliament. We honour the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the shadow minister and the contributions they make to our nation. Here in this place we particularly honour Senator Patrick Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Lidia Thorpe and Senator Jacqui Lambie. Thank you for the work that you do. Each of you brings a crucially important perspective to this place, a perspective that adds knowledge and understanding to the deliberations and conversations not just in the formal chambers or committees of the parliament but, perhaps even more importantly, in the informal engagements had between one another. You also set a most crucial and valuable example. You provide, we hope, inspiration and hope to new generations of young Australians through the leadership roles that you play. I look forward to other Indigenous Australians joining us in this parliament in the years to come. Ultimately, we hope for it to be commonplace, rather than exceptional, to be serving alongside Indigenous women and men in our parliaments.

This past weekend marked 13 years since then Prime Minister Rudd gave an apology on behalf of the nation to Australia's Indigenous people, particularly to the stolen generations. The apology was a moment for our country to take steps towards healing. It was a significant step in and of itself. I reiterate those words today: I am sorry for the injustices of the past; we are sorry as a parliament.

Whilst we observe the anniversary of such a significant milestone in our nation's history, this is also an opportunity for us to reflect upon practices undertaken by governments in the past that wrongly sought to disrupt and indeed destroy the world's longest-living culture. We pay respect to those members of the stolen generations, to the survivors and to those who have followed in their footsteps and those who are no longer with us; to the victims of past government policies that forced removal and cultural assimilation.

A state that acted with absolute control over Aboriginal people's lives without even recognising them as citizens was, clearly, a mark of shame. The apology was our opportunity as Australians to say it was wrong for parliaments and governments to remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities and their country just because they were Indigenous. As Minister Wyatt so rightly put it over the weekend, the occasion of this anniversary is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the terrible loss and suffering and to remark upon the resilience and determination of those who worked so hard to ensure wrongs were acknowledged and to preserve the culture of their peoples and nations into the future.

What followed the national apology was an effort to close the gap. In the decade that followed, we saw mixed results and an inconsistency in outcomes. As education minister, I was pleased to see positive progress towards the closing the gap targets in terms of the targets around year 12 educational attainment. Such steps in education provide encouragement and some hope for the future, but elsewhere there was a failure to achieve the scale of progress or the permanent change the nation aspired to.

In July last year, we signed a new national agreement on closing the gap, an agreement reached through a historic partnership between Australian governments and Indigenous peak organisations. We understand that the best outcomes occur when governments and Indigenous Australians work together. This agreement marks a new chapter in our efforts and, echoing the comments of the Prime Minister, 'a new chapter in our efforts—one built on mutual trust, respect and dignity'.

Progress is being made as we, across Australia, think differently and recraft our approach, but we know there is so much more to do. On 9 January, Minister Wyatt launched the second stage of the Indigenous Voice co-design process. I thank Professor Marcia Langton and Professor Tom Calma for their work alongside more than 52 members across three co-design groups. I encourage all Australians, especially all 800,000 Indigenous Australians, to provide their feedback to that process.

As a nation and a parliament, we continue to reflect on our shared history and to mark the hope of that day 13 years ago. Changes across a country like Australia can happen at all levels, from governments through to citizens. I would like to acknowledge the very thoughtful, personal and thought-provoking journey shared by ABC journalist Ellen Fanning of her discovery of two Indigenous women, Angelina McKenzie and Maria Koosney, who were sent to undertake forced employment with Ellen's great-grandfather. Ellen's research led to a meeting with Maria's granddaughter and great-granddaughter, Christine Stuart and Loraine Franks.

I'll quote Ellen's article. It says:

After five hours of exchanging photographs and stories, two Queensland families sweating and smiling, there is still one more thing left to say.

"My family owes a debt of gratitude to your family," I begin, "because when they came from England and Ireland, they had nothing. They were pretty much illiterate.

"And off the back of the work and the knowledge of country that your family brought, my family is educated and where we are today. So, is 'thank you' the right thing to say?"

"Of course it is, Ellen … You cannot blame the children of today for what the elders did yesterday," Loraine says. "As far as I am concerned, my mother would be smiling down on us now. I really mean that."

Loraine shows an amazing generosity of kindness and forgiveness that offers remarkable hope. So many Indigenous Australians have shown such resilience, such kindness, such forgiveness.

On days like today, we acknowledge the wrongs of what have happened and together seek to work to ensure it doesn't happen to future generations. The apology brought this parliament and the nation closer together and recognised the significant contribution Indigenous Australians had made and continue to make to this great nation. Today we reaffirm our commitment and lean into that shared hope of a future in which we are one and we walk together in the pursuit of a better future for all and a better understanding amongst all. I thank the Senate.

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

Thirteen years ago I had just returned to Australia from South Africa. I had left this country disgusted and angry at the political obfuscation, fabrication and outright denial around the removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers and families, and the refusal to acknowledge, apologise and compensate for what governments had done under political cover to hide the genocide that had been perpetrated—taking Aboriginal children away, breaking their links to culture and community and forcing an assimilation scheme upon them. Should anyone care to challenge my use of the word 'genocide', let me point to article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The convention was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and ratified by Australia the next year. Article II of the convention prescribes acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Among those acts prescribed were 'deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part' and 'forcibly transferring children of the group to another group'. As uncomfortable as the definition might be, that is the definition of the United Nations, and Australia ratified that convention in 1949, almost 70 years ago. The Human Rights Commission Bringing them home report was quite explicit. The forcible removal of children from Aboriginal Australians to other groups for the purposes of raising them separately from and ignorant of their culture and people was properly labelled genocidal in the breaching of binding international law.

I have very vivid memories of the late Sir Ronald Wilson and my brother Mick Dodson, his co-commissioner, launching the Bringing them home report at the reconciliation convention in Melbourne in May 1997. It was a moment of national truth-telling that the Howard government could not handle. Its reaction was to deny that these awful things had ever happened to Aboriginal people in this country and, if they had happened, somehow or other it was for the good of the children involved. There was no need to apologise about what happened and certainly no need to compensate them for this sanctioned activity.

One of those children was an old friend of mine, Mr Frank Byrne, who was taken from his family in 1943. I was reminded of the wretchedness he experienced throughout his whole life when only last week I penned a forward to his memoir to be published later this year. Frank was just six years old when the authorities dumped him at Moola Bulla Station in the Kimberley, which was run by the Western Australian government. In his early teens he was told his mother had died, but that was a blatant, dreadful lie. He spent the rest of his life trying to find out what had happened to her only to learn in later years that she had not died until 1962. Frank's grief was overwhelming. This wrench from his mother haunted him until his death in 2017, and his writing about this sense of loss will move many people to tears. An injury prevented Frank from coming to Canberra to hear Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations 13 years ago, but he said he was able to witness it from his home in Alice Springs. In his memoir, which I have been proud to promote, he writes: 'I thought this man is genuine. He had guts to come out and say this wonderful thing.'

I was able to be here in Canberra when Prime Minister Rudd made the apology. I sat in the other place with Mrs Vincenti, whom I had met during the Aboriginal deaths in custody inquiry in Western Australia. Mrs Vincenti had been taken as a young girl to the notorious Roelands Mission near Bunbury in Western Australia. Tragically, her son had been shot at Canning Vale prison while he was in custody. The apology was the first time we'd heard of the idea of closing the gap and life expectancy and of measures to bring equality between First Australian nations and the wider population. This was also a time when we were told that a new chapter in our relationship was to be written, starting with a blank page, but the only new ink on this blank page in these last 13 years has been the pleas of the First Nations peoples in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Today, we heard the Prime Minister and Minister Wyatt say that there's a new deal that involves buy-in from the Commonwealth, the states and the territories and from the peak Aboriginal organisations, a COAG agreement that has not formulated implementation plans yet. So we'll be waiting until August until we learn if anything is, in fact, going to be done and is going to improve the situation.

What we do know, and there's empirical evidence to back this up, is just how damaging those policies were of forcibly removing and damaging those thousands of stolen generation peoples. They continue to suffer to this day. A study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found they have experienced a range of adverse health, cultural and socioeconomic outcomes at a rate higher—higher!—than Indigenous populations that were not removed. For example, members of the stolen generations are more than three times likely to be incarcerated than other Indigenous peoples.

The disadvantage and trauma doesn't end with the stolen generations themselves. Their families, too, have poor health and poor social outcomes. The same Institute of Health and Welfare report, for example, found that their descendants are 1½ times as likely to have been arrested in the past five years than those of First Nations peoples whose families were not removed. No wonder that Mrs Vincenti's son was in jail when he was killed; he was almost fated to have been incarcerated.

By the way, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the delivery of the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and Indigenous people are still being locked up at scandalous rates and Aboriginal children are being removed from their families in shocking numbers. Twenty-four years after the Bringing them home report,First Nations children are nearly 10 times more likely to be living in out-of-home care in Australia and more than 20,000 First Nations children are in out-of-home care. That's about 37 per cent of the total number of children in out-of-home care, yet First Nations children represent only six per cent of the child population in Australia. As shocking as these figures are, they are getting worse. It is urgently incumbent upon all of us to make the services available to help families, not just to remove kids. I acknowledge that the new Closing the Gap targets recognise this crisis in the criminal justice and child protection areas, but those targets will continue to be unachievable without adequate investment by all governments, including the Commonwealth.

I am gripped by a real sense of despair on occasions like this. We wait and we wait and nothing gets done. We get promises and promises and promises; nothing gets done. What will it take for this country to confront the awful realities of its history and fix these continuing fundamental wrongs? Well, let me tell you what a good start might be, apart from setting some new targets. To the other side I say: open your hearts and embrace in full the plea of the Uluru Statement from the Heart for voice, treaty and truth. We can only be enriched, not diminished, if we do. This is the gap that has to be diminished.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We don't have sound for Senator Thorpe. I'll get the technicians to contact you, Senator Thorpe. Senator Wong.

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

Thank you, Mr President.

… we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and proud culture, we say sorry.

This is how Kevin Rudd began the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. It was a day of national catharsis, a day of national healing and, most of all, a day of national hope. In the House of Representatives, on the lawns outside and across the country, we Australians embraced in a way we never had before, because we embraced one another without armour, in honesty, in truth—the conditions of respect. It was the starting point for an equal stake. Yet too often when parliamentarians have recognised the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations there have been attempts to comfort our conscience and say, 'Well, we have a long way to go, but look how far we've come.' We need no more of that. We diminish the apology, this watershed moment of truth-telling, if we conceal failure and neglect in self-gratifying fictions that we are moving forward. In fact, it's hard to see how we are moving much at all. On this year's anniversary of the national apology, we look at how far we have not come and we reproach this government, which appears perfectly at peace with its own inertia on reconciliation and on closing the gap with First Australians.

This past Saturday was the 13th anniversary of the apology, but for years now work on closing the gap, the voice to parliament and makarrata has been stalled. In last year's Closing the gap report, five of the seven targets—child mortality, literacy and numeracy, school attendance, employment and life expectancy—weren't on track. Last year's Family matters report, more than a decade after the apology, showed the alarming rates at which Indigenous children are being removed from their families now: 37.3 per cent of all children removed. The Morrison government promised a referendum for constitutional recognition. They promised it, but they won't commit. They won't commit to a time line. They won't commit to doing the work to make the referendum a success.

I reiterate the offer made by Mr Albanese, Senator Dodson and Ms Burney, the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, who is here today, that Labor wants to work constructively to achieve a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament. We don't care who gets the credit, but we do want to get it done—and there is time to get it done now. All of us in this place should be determined to see all three elements of the statement: the constitutionally enshrined voice, treaty-making and truth-telling overseen by a makarrata commission. Senator Dodson, the father of reconciliation, has put a motion on the Notice Paper to establish a Joint Select Committee on Makarrata. I know he's seeking agreement with Minister Wyatt. I say to the government: express your support. I say to government senators: express your support in the party room. It's not so much to ask. It costs you so little. The Uluru statement as a whole is not much to ask, frankly. In fact, we should be humbled and gracious that a people who have had everything taken from them are willing to meet us on these terms. These are terms that cost us nothing and ask us only to demonstrate some humility and some grace ourselves. It is time for those opposite to demonstrate some humility and some grace.

The apology was recommended in the Bringing them home report, which Senator Dodson has spoken about. The then Prime Minister, John Howard, resisted it for the following 10 years. Let's remember the ridiculing of those who acknowledged the facts of our past as having a 'black armband' view, the opposition to the apology—all this despite the community support that is best remembered by and exemplified in those reconciliation walks in the year 2000. Nelson Mandela visited Australia that year. He said the quarter of a million people-strong Sydney Harbour Bridge walk showed a country wanting to heal itself and deal with the hurt of the past. He went on to say:

Leaving wounds unattended leads to its festering and eventually causes greater injury to the body of society.

Mr Mandela well understood from the South African experience what we call makarrata. Then, of course, in 2008, in one of his earliest acts as Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd moved the national apology, and the Nelson opposition went along with it. After eight years in government, it's time the Liberals showed they meant it.

Unlike John Howard, today's Liberals don't huff and puff and dig in their heels. Instead, they just say they care, they talk about how important it is to get it right, but they don't deliver. The current Prime Minister uses similar but more subtle arguments than his Liberal predecessor about not getting stuck in the past. Well, it is irrelevant that the past can't be changed because it lives on. We receive the past as material and emotional inheritance, whether it be abundance or deprivation. We receive it as a system that continues to mete out disadvantage and advantage by the same formula it always has, unless we take steps to change it. You see, this is how systemic racism works, and we do talk about that now as much as we talk about individual acts of racial prejudice. That is a positive development, because it helps us understand that racism is not just seen in explicit acts of abuse or violence. It is also manifest in culture, law and policy. If you don't believe me, have a look around and ask whether this place, and many other centres of power in Australia, look like today's Australia.

It is a great thing for our Labor caucus to have Pat Dodson, Linda Burney and Malarndirri McCarthy in it. It deeply enriches us. We welcome those other members of parliament and senators—Mr Wyatt, Senator Thorpe, Senator Lambie—but alongside representation the rest of us also need to act, and in this place, in the parliament of Australia, we actually have the means to move the needle, we have the means to help the nation heal, and we have the means to tackle systematic intergenerational Indigenous disadvantage. So, if we don't have the will, what does it say about us? If you want to sit on the government benches but you're not going to insist that your cabinet and Prime Minister do better then what does it say about you?

The national apology was the start, but a government that wants to claim legitimacy in the sweep of this country's history must make sure it was not the end. If you want Australia to succeed as a nation and as a family, we must all have the equal stake in it that Prime Minister Rudd called for and that our Indigenous people have called for. So I again extend Labor's offer to work together to close the gap and to achieve constitutional recognition for voice, treaty and truth.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise to contribute on the anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation mob, and members out there are listening today. My mother was also co-commissioner with Sir Ronald Wilson at that time and is still affected by the hundreds and hundreds of stories that she sat through at the time of that inquiry. The impacts continue, and the stealing of children continues today in 2021.

I remind everybody that a lot has been said about systemic racism in the lead up to 26 January and after 26 January, particularly in my home state of Victoria. Senator Wong briefly touched on the fact that this is a system of colonisation and that this is systematic racism that continues in our society today. We heard Senator Dodson talk about there being over 20,000 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care today in 2021. Saying 'sorry' means you don't do it again, yet the numbers increase and the destruction and desecration of our families, our communities and the parents of those children continues in 2021.

Few people understand what systemic racism is. It was systemic racism and white supremacy that made the colonisers steal our children, ripping them as babies from their mothers. AO Neville, the white supremacist that was one of the architects of the White Australia policy, was very clear that the point of this evil policy was to end our people—eradicate First Peoples from these lands and our culture with them. He said:

Are we going to have one million blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia?

Systemic racism, or institutional racism, is the idea that white superiority—the false idea that white is right—is captured in the everyday thinking of people and how our society operates. Australia is a place that is racist to its very foundations, but funnily enough there are no racists at all to be found in this country. The same people who recoil at being called racist are the same ones who do not care enough or, at least, are happy to accept that our people die almost 10 years before anyone else—and that's okay because that's just how things are, right? Racism in this country operates and bears down across all of society and is deeply embedded in our laws, and everyone just seems to act as if this is fine and normal. That's what systemic racism is. It's the racism that is built into the systems we work and live in. This type of racism is so insidious because it's designed to be invisible.

Racism is baked into the system, from the White Australia policy and the race powers in the Constitution to the fact that our people could not all vote in the country until 1965, despite having bled and died for you in both world wars. Systemic racism is evident in the fact that we were constitutionally barred from being officially counted in the census until '67. This parliament was happy for us to not even count on our own country. That's systemic racism. It's the rusted-on racism that is inescapable. We have been living with it since the colonisers came to build their prison on our lands and waters. They raped our women and children. They poisoned our waterholes and forced us to eat their toxic food. The colonisers chained us, beat us, imprisoned us and tried to eradicate us from our own country for their own profits. They also stole our children. They took our babies. I got a message just this morning about another baby that's been taken away at the hospital bed before its mother could even begin breastfeeding. Then these colonisers, these foreigners, told us that they were doing this for our own good, and they still do. The vile racist AO Neville said that:

… they have to be protected against themselves whether they like it or not. They cannot remain as they are. The sore spot requires the application of the surgeon's knife for the good of the patient, and probably against the patient's will.

What we actually needed protection from was colonisation.

The colonising governments of this country stole our children. Let's sit with that for a moment. The governments of this country stole our children, as an act of genocide. Ten per cent of our children who were born before the seventies were stolen by the governments of this country. Those children were enslaved, raped, abused, set to work and kept separate from their families, their cultures and their country. So many of them are still looking for their families. So many more died not knowing who they came from or where their ancestral homes were.

The government of this country ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Article 2 of that convention states that genocide:

… means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

And we know what Gina Rinehart's father said about that, that we just needed to poison the waterways to make us all sterile—

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

They are the definitions of genocide. If the governments of this country did to other people in other countries what they did to us, they would be rightly condemned as war criminals. But when our people are under fire from the government of this country, that's accepted as just 'this is how things are here'. And that is the systemic racism that is killing us.

The survivors of the stolen gen have been pushed to experience the worst outcomes of almost anyone in this country—and we heard Senator Dodson talk about those statistics—not to mention the trauma and ill health people have to live with every single day. As a black woman, there is one emotion I'm not allowed to feel or show in public, and that is anger, or else I'm an 'angry black woman', an uppity black who should just shut her mouth and stay happy with the rations I get. I'm not allowed to be angry, despite having plenty of reasons to be. Our people have been pushed to experience the worst social, health, education and employment outcomes of anyone in this country. Our sacred places have been destroyed by both sides of the chamber, our sites have been poisoned and our totems have been killed and continue to be killed today. Our people are the most imprisoned people on earth. Having a constitutionally enshrined voice won't fix that. We have a war on our hands, between white Australia and black Australia, and the only thing that will rectify that is a peace treaty to bring peace and to give us seats in parliament, not a voice to parliament. My heart, my soul and my condolences to all those who've been affected by the genocidal act of stealing our children from our families, our communities and our country. We will continue to rebuild as this nation's First People.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the national apology remembrance. In 2008 the Stolen Generations received a national apology for the wrongs done to them by previous governments. As a nation we learned a lot when the Bringing them home report was released in 1997, and we have continued to learn in the years since. That report revealed the tragedies of many of those children, who were often terribly abused, neglected and unloved. The apology affirmed our nation's agreement that we should never accept or condone the removal of children from their families based on race. But today, as I stand in this place, I am deeply saddened by the knowledge that we have much more to be sorry for around our treatment of Indigenous Australians.

Unlike many of the most vocal urban Aboriginal activists, I have visited remote Aboriginal communities throughout Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. I've seen for myself how governments turn a blind eye to at-risk Aboriginal children. I have sat with elders and learned firsthand what they need and what they want in order to rid their communities of the evils of violence, abuse, alcohol and drugs. And I've seen how children are repeatedly returned to parents who persistently abuse or neglect them, parents who demonstrate a complete inability to deliver the care and attention those children so desperately need. We're talking about abuse and neglect that would make your toes curl: rampant alcohol and drug abuse; interfamily and domestic violence, some of the worst you will ever see; the starvation and malnutrition of children; the denial of education because too many Aboriginal parents refuse to send their children to school; and, worst of all, prostitution and paedophilia involving, reportedly, children as young as two—and all this in 21st century Australia, in one of the most economically and socially advanced countries on the planet.

Why do governments of today refuse to remove at-risk children from these households? Why are they afraid to treat at-risk Indigenous children the same way they treat non-Indigenous children every day of the week, to protect children in any city or town in Australia? Why do they shame us all as a nation by not reaching out effectively and saving the lives and futures of these children and their communities? Like many Australians, I believe both sides of politics are all too afraid of being labelled as creators of a second stolen generation, as false as that accusation would be. They lack the courage and the will to act, in the face of the cancel culture, on behalf of these children and the families who desperately cry out for rapid and empowering solutions.

So my apology is to today's Indigenous victims, the ones who live with and suffer from the horrors of child molesters; they are the ones who today, as we gather here, are breaking into people's homes to steal food from fridges. Today I'm saying sorry to all the Aboriginal children who should be spending their first few weeks in prep or primary school, but their parents simply don't care enough to get them there. I'm sorry for the children of parents who have told me they feel ashamed of their own lack of education and, tragically, can't support a world where their kids will earn more than them. I'm sorry for the sit-down money that we're paying a growing number of Aboriginal parents who have no inspiration to improve their own lives, let alone their children's, through meaningful employment. I'm also sorry for those Indigenous kids who have never been tucked into bed by loving parents but are instead ignored by those who are too busy drinking to worry where their kids are late at night.

Of course, self-styled Aboriginal elites like Senator Thorpe would prefer we continue working, as she does, to create permanent victims out of First Nations people. Senator Thorpe—

Senator Waters interjecting—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters is on her feet. Senator Hanson, I didn't catch what you said there. I am going to ask; I'll check the Hansard otherwise.

Senator Waters interjecting—

Senator Waters, I've taken your point. I'm addressing it with Senator Hanson. I couldn't hear exactly what you said, Senator Hanson. I'm going to ask you to reflect on the words you used. If you think they were a reflection upon another senator, rather than a criticism of a senator's political activity, I'll ask you to withdraw. I will check the Hansard afterwards, otherwise.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I won't be withdrawing.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Okay. Well, I'll check the Hansard, and if there's an issue I'll have to come back to the chamber, because I didn't hear the term used and I won't ask for it to be repeated at this point in case it is a reflection.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Thorpe seems to have made it her life's work, at least at present, to enjoy the substantial salary of her position while she works to ensure—

Honourable senators interjecting—

that Indigenous communities remain trapped by the permanent evils of victimhood—

Senator Waters interjecting—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters! I'm listening very carefully. There is a tension between the rules guaranteeing almost absolute free speech in this chamber and the rules on negative reflections on other senators. I'm going to take some advice on the words that have been used here and I will come back to the chamber. I will also say that there are also standards that don't have to be reflected in rules, as I've often said, that can actually ensure the nature of good debate in this chamber. So, Senator Hanson, I'm not going to rule that that was an unparliamentary reflection. I will take advice because that was not absolutely clear from my understanding of the standing orders, but I will check the words very carefully. If it assigns a motive or imputes a motive, I will deem it unparliamentary. If it is a criticism of action then I'm afraid I don't think, as a general rule, that that can be deemed unparliamentary. But I will very carefully review the words. Senator Hanson, I'm also going to ask you to consider from this point forward, in the remainder of your speech, the rules on reflecting on other senators, because we do have stricter rules on reflections on members of the Senate and members of the House than we do on general comment. Senator Hanson.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because, without victims, the senator and her Greens, truth-denying colleagues would have no relevance in this place.

But I believe with all my heart that we can help create champions out of our Indigenous children—champions who go on to become contributing members of their communities and the broader working Australian society; champions who are proud to be Australian; champions who also insist on improving the health, education and prospects of future generations; champions who do not see themselves as victims. But most politicians in this place will only ever run decoy to the real issues plaguing modern First Nations Australians.

We must remain colourblind to ensure the safety and upbringing of all our children, no matter their skin colour or culture. We must show courage and determination to provide the opportunities and pathways that will protect and empower all young Australians. We must call out the cowardice and the manipulation of the truth-denying elites who seek to keep any group of Australians trapped in permanent victimhood. We should behave like the advanced First World nation we are.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Ngunawal people, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. Can I specifically acknowledge Minister Wyatt, Senator Dodson, Mrs Burney, Senator McCarthy, Senator Lambie and Senator Thorpe and pay my respects to them and all Indigenous Australians on this very important anniversary.

Thirteen years ago the Australian government delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. The then Prime Minister, Prime Minister Rudd, acknowledged and reflected on this blemished chapter of Australia's history. Thirteen years on we must not forget that, because it is as important today as it was then and has always been. Today is an opportunity, as a government, to reflect on the national strategies to improve the outcomes for Indigenous Australians, through improved policy implementation informed by the voices of Indigenous Australians. It is an opportunity as a community and as community representatives to work hand in hand with local champions to promote the world's longest-living culture. Painfully and most importantly, it is a moment to acknowledge the tremendous loss and suffering of First Nations peoples and what they have experienced. As the Prime Minister said today, actions of brute force were carried out under claims of good intentions but, in truth, betrayed the ignorance of arrogance—knowing better than our Indigenous peoples.

Following the national apology came an effort to overcome inequality and shape an Australia where we close the gap between the life expectancy, educational achievements and economic opportunities of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. That challenge continues today. The Prime Minister has made it clear that Closing the Gap is a whole-of-government priority, and so it should be. We cannot look at these issues with a singular focus or with preconceived notions that fail to connect with realities on the ground. Major changes to systems, to policy and to practice will only be secured when Indigenous leaders and their communities are able to participate in and influence the decisions that affect their lives. This is central to some of the programs and initiatives that exist under my Social Services portfolio.

For the first time, the Closing the Gap agreement includes targets to reduce the rate of overrepresentation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care. Our goal is to make sure we reduce that rate by 45 per cent by 2031. Right now there are approximately 20,000 Indigenous children in out-of-home care. By any measure, that is a very distressing figure and we must address it. So too is the tragic rate of domestic violence in our remote communities. Evidence indicates that Indigenous women and children experience disproportionately high rates of domestic violence. Everybody has the right to be safe in their community and that's why it is so essential that we are able to provide specialised family violence services to deliver culturally and age-appropriate family and domestic violence services to children and young people as well as to women who are victims of domestic violence. In order to make a long-term difference in the rates of violence against women, we also must change attitudes to violence. That is why it is very important that we invest in initiatives that work with our First Australians to make sure that, working with community elders, we can promote healthy and respective relationships.

Equally important is to effect change in relation to the level of educational attainment. The government are committed to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to access the best education possible as we continue to work together to close the gap in education. Under the Social Services portfolio, we continue to fund support to Indigenous children to start their schooling with cognitive development and skills comparable to those of their peers, improving their chances of completing their education.

I look forward to continuing to work with all Indigenous leaders and peak organisations in the pursuit of developing outcome-focused policies that make a real difference to Indigenous people in Australia. These challenges remain. They are big and they are small, but we must continue to work side by side to overcome them.

Stirling Griff (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The national apology in 2008 was very much overdue. It was delivered years after every other state and territory issued their apologies. When it was finally delivered in this place, it was an important acknowledgement of the suffering and devastation wrought by past government policy, a policy of forcible removal and assimilation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The national apology was important for healing. But the horrible legacy of those callous policies continues to this day. The harm of being ripped away from family, land and culture passes through generations. An apology was important, but it was only a beginning and not an end.

On many fronts, we are still in the process of making amends. We are yet to close the gap on several health and social determinants, and, until that is done, the apology remains a symbolic act of unfinished business. There are so many adverse health and welfare ills that disproportionately afflict Indigenous people—for instance, rheumatic heart disease. In estimates last year, I asked what was being done nationally about this serious disease. Rheumatic fever and heart disease are rare in Australia unless you're Indigenous. Young children living in remote areas are at particular risk. It is absolutely a preventable condition. It is also a condition brought on by poverty, crowded living conditions and limited medical care. It seems incredible to me that we are battling what is essentially a Third World condition in a First World nation.

While today we commemorate the national apology, we can't simply mark the occasion in our collective calendars and then move on to business as usual. There are things that we can all do, things that we must do, starting with speaking up against casual racism when we see it and holding those in power to account. I'm confident we will eventually close the gap in attitudes, services and prospects. I am hopeful that, in my lifetime, all Indigenous people around Australia will be able to enjoy the same opportunities and life outcomes that many other Australians take for granted. But progress remains way too slow. Good intentions and the symbolism of the national apology are important, but what matters more is the action we take in response.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a short contribution on this occasion marking the anniversary of the national apology. Far too many First Nations peoples are attending funerals in this country. I attend so many meetings where somebody's giving an apology because they have to be at a funeral. The apology brought such hope, and it was very important, but, unless we back it up, where are we heading in this country in closing the gap? While so many First Nations peoples are attending funerals for loved ones and friends who have passed away all too soon, and far too many children are still going into care, including in my home state of Western Australia, our appalling record shows the failures in our system.

In January, a First Nations mother in a regional town in Western Australia made a from-the-heart, emotional video about the situation affecting her son. It had to do with the interaction with the justice system, the discriminatory nature of policing, and the failure of the justice system to provide services and support for not only her son but also for her family after years of trying. This, for me, was unfortunately a perfect example of what I hear time and time again—that the services aren't there and that we haven't backed up the apology with a commitment to the sorts of services that we need. Why is it that far too many First Nations young people are ending up in care and ending up interacting with the justice system?

I have a bit of a list from my home state of Western Australia that talks about just some of the issues that First Nations mothers have raised in conversation when we're trying to look at how to move forward. They point out the fact that Western Australia performs incredibly poorly when it comes to appropriate First Nations child protection services and that other jurisdictions are ahead of us, particularly those overseas. The current structure does not support families trying to support their loved ones and it does not support reunification of families. This was actually backed up a number of years ago by the Senate inquiry into out-of-home care, where it was clearly pointed out that the reunification of families is not funded or given proper attention. The department does not respond adequately when concerns are raised about the sexualised behaviour of children in care. They pointed out that it's time for a change to legislation so that there is a more therapeutic and restorative justice approach. Adequate funding is not available in Western Australia, including for the Family Matters campaign, and advocacy is therefore hampered by not having a clear community voice that politicians can listen to. Family and domestic violence services are not adequately funded. This is a national issue, not just a Western Australian issue. Competitive tendering creates distrust and undermines collaboration. The strong families project, which was a positive project, has been abolished. They pointed out that there are no Aboriginal community services and women's peaks. The involvement of Aboriginal people in policymaking must include lived experience. With a high percentage of children in care also having a parent or grandparent from the stolen generations, this is not given adequate attention. There need to be amendments to the Children and Community Services Act, and we need a human rights approach, human rights framing and co-design with First Nations communities. The issues around the therapeutic court need to be extended and resourced properly and trialled more in regional areas. There needs to be support for children with complex needs and their parents when they're interacting in that situation, and we need to ensure we're supporting kinship care and family care properly.

They also talked about the issues caused by intergenerational trauma, the issues around the need for provision of more services and the recognition of intergenerational trauma. They talked about the need for a justice system that meets the needs of First Nations peoples. These are the sorts of things that we still need to address, and we're talking about the anniversary of the apology, which happened 13 years ago. Surely I shouldn't have to stand in this place and raise these issues again. First Nations peoples should not have to continue to raise these issues. It's absolutely essential that these issues are addressed. The issues that I've just articulated are issues in my home state of Western Australia, but they occur all over this country. This system is still discriminatory. It is a racist system and we need to call it out for what it is: discriminatory and racist. Our services are still discriminatory. They do not meet the needs of Aboriginal people. So, next year, when we're standing in this chamber talking about the anniversary of the apology, let's be able to be more positive that these issues are starting to be addressed, because, if not, in 10 years time we'll be here again saying the same things. I don't want to see my replacement standing in this chamber having to say the same things in 10 years time.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to 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.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also want to start with an acknowledgement of all the Indigenous members and senators in this place, who make a terrific contribution to this parliament.

I guess the thing that comes to my mind is that Australia has been a great country, and during this year we have performed better than most other places on earth. But this has not been a good country for Indigenous people. Of course, the apology was a terrific thing, a great gesture. It took too long to be given but it was part of a rebalancing of our history. You can go back to the sixties and look at what Stanner said about the great Australian silence. I think that there's still a lot of that around today, that there is a certain blindness or deafness about some of the misery, frankly, that exists within this society. It is one of the most important issues for us to be thinking about as a parliament. The issues are complex—if we had all the solutions we would have solved the problem some time ago—but people are required to think about the issues. My sense is that too few Australians know Indigenous people. I think it's a problem of proximity: there's not a lack of care but there is a lack of proximity. That has been my observation. In New South Wales there are around 300,000 Indigenous people. I've tried to travel around the state, out to Brewarrina, Bourke, Kempsey, Nowra. I talk to the people in Redfern quite a lot. The issues are complex, but I think the Closing the Gap refresh this year is a genuine attempt to formulate listening into a policy framework, rather than doing without consultation. That is, let's hope, a significant improvement.

But there is a need for us to do more beyond refreshing the Closing the Gap targets. The Closing the Gap targets are terribly important because they speak to this disparity. Over the last year, yes, there has been a pandemic, but there have also been significant protests in the United States: the Black Lives Matter movement. People in Australia have said to me, 'Well, that's an imported movement; that has nothing to do with us here,' but then you look at the data and the comparisons on incarceration and on lifespan. The issues are more acute in Australia than they are in the United States. The Closing the Gap targets—Closing the Gap 2.0, you may want to call it—are heavily focused on these bread-and-butter issues. They are focused on education; they are focused on employment; they are focused on reducing incarceration. I think that is good. There is much hope that this Closing the Gap 2.0 will work. It has to work. It is very important that the government put the resources into it to make sure that it does work, because that is a very important national issue for us to spend our time on.

The other issue that has been spoken about today—and I think there have been some very good contributions in the House as well as in the Senate—is the question of a voice to parliament. It was in the Uluru statement but it was, of course, a policy idea that was around before the Uluru statement was released in 2017. This is the idea that you would consult Indigenous people on laws and policies which impact them. Indigenous people are the only people in Australia who have a whole slew of laws especially made for them. There is no other group in Australian society that has so many laws on our statute books: native title, land rights, heritage protection, Indigenous corporations—the list goes on and on. So I think the idea that you would have a system of consulting people on their special laws is a very good idea. This is something that we are progressing. This is something on which Senator Dodson and Mr Julian Leeser produced a detailed report in the last parliament, and we are now following the recommendation to deliver a voice through co-design. In the last few weeks, the report from Marcia Langton and Tom Calma was released for consultation. That is an important process of this government.

I think that Mr Rudd did a very good thing for the country. This is an important thing, first, to maintain. I'm very, very mindful that closing the gap 2.0 must work. It is a serious refashioning of that agenda, and it's very important that the resources and the effort are put into that. Beyond that agenda, I think this voice to parliament is something that we should do. It's a good idea, it's a fair idea, and I am personally committed to it.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about Minnie Daley, who is on my granddaughter Charlee's side. Charlee is a direct descendant of Minnie Daley. Minnie Daley was born on Sturt Creek station in the Kimberley. If you were to look at the history of Sturt Creek station, you would see it was part of what was described as the 'killing times'. There were massacres there. We've not got to the bottom of that yet, but certainly that was part of Minnie's family experience. At some point in her young life, Minnie Daley was stolen from Sturt Creek station, taken from her family, from her mother, along with her brother, Owen, and her sister, Peggy. Minnie also spent time at the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission, in Middle Swan. She stayed there until she reached the age of 18.

Today I was speaking with Nola Gregory, one of Charlee's grannies, and Nola told me that Minnie died and is buried in a pauper's grave in Karrakatta. That's absolutely shameful, because what we know is that the records of First Nations people in Western Australia, under native protector Neville, are immaculate. So I'm sure it was written in the record books exactly who Minnie Daley was. Nevertheless, she was buried in a pauper's grave and the family weren't notified. Last year the family took Minnie and gave her a proper burial in their adopted home of Geraldton. But Nola, despite being fourth generation, some 60 years later tells me that that pain is still real. It is real, it's passed on, and it's real pain for Charlee.

When former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the apology, I stood on the lawns outside and I knew that there were women here from Geraldton and Morawa. Nola told me to look out for them and that they were wearing T-shirts. One of the things about Nola Gregory is she's an incredibly clever woman and she writes the most amazing poetry, some of which has been published, and other poems are about to be published. Her poems are always incredibly meaningful. Nola wrote a poem for the apology, and those women wore it on their T-shirts, so it was pretty easy for me to track them down and introduce myself. I asked Nola today if I had permission to read her Stolen Generation, her recognition of Sorry Day, to the parliament, and Nola gave me that permission, so I'm going to do that today. This is a poem that Nola Gregory wrote on 5 February 2008:

In silence you have suffered

Your pain locked deep inside

You fought so long for this

And still you kept your pride

The tears of all the mothers

For their children they did cry

Their broken hearts a memory

Etched in the children's eyes

Born of a strong proud people

Never would you forget

The anguish and the burdens

Now your life had been all set

But the yearning was still a part of you

You just did not feel right

Something here was missing

You knew you had to fight

And fight you did throughout the years

To parliaments, pollies and all

How could you make them listen

Would they heed your heartfelt calls

All you wanted was an apology

Not thinking it would take so long

And sorry was just one little word

Was asking for this so wrong

A flood of overwhelming emotions

Will be felt on this memorable day

And those who have gone before us

In spirit will lead the way

The stolen generations

Will stand with hands on hearts

Today the tears flow freely

And this is just only the start

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too want to add my remarks to this Closing the Gap debate today on the anniversary of the apology to Australia's stolen generations. It was a real privilege to be part of the Rudd government at the time this apology was made. Today I want to turn to things more practical that very much stand in the way of making progress on that promise we made back in 2008. I really want to turn to some of the practical issues that affect Aboriginal peoples, particularly in remote places in Western Australia, and some of the reasons why we simply will not make progress on the Closing the Gap targets if we continue with the lack of commitment and leadership from a Commonwealth government that doesn't want to fund things like municipal services and remote housing.

I had the great privilege of visiting remote communities just last week out in the Kimberley. We have a state election coming up. The federal election commission handles enrolments for the state election. It is of great consequence and appalling, to my mind, that the federal division of Durack is the constituency with the lowest enrolment in the country, which in large part comes down to a lack of servicing for remote Indigenous communities, a lack of commitment to the special effort required to ensure that all Australians, in particular First Australians who live in remote places on their own country, are enrolled to vote. For Indigenous Australians in remote communities, English will be not their second language but their fourth or fifth language, with their other languages all being the local Indigenous languages and Kriol, which they first and foremost speak.

I could see in the communities that I visited—and I want to pay special attention to Balgo—what a difference improvements to the quality of housing had made to the lives of many there, yet the problem of overcrowding, deteriorating housing stock or housing that hadn't been upgraded is an extreme and continuing issue. In addition, we also see out at Balgo a need for improved water supplies and water security. They desperately need access to renal services in Balgo. I spoke to one elder who was terrified at the prospect of needing to leave her community and needing to leave the young people there without the cultural leadership that elders like her were handing on to young people. She could see countless examples before her of the elders that had to leave those communities in order to access renal services. They have set out to raise some $2 million so that Purple House will be able to play a role in their community in providing those services.

It really does set us a challenge that we must meet in the delivery of government services. On an issue as important as housing, this Commonwealth government has stepped away from an ongoing commitment to remote community housing. They have stepped away from funding critical municipal services, including things like water. It is very difficult to see how the government's rhetoric in relation to Closing the Gap can be anything more than that.

I visited the community of Mulan. It was delightful to see the terrific work being done there by Indigenous Protected Areas rangers. They've just rediscovered the night parrot and they're really excited about their traditional custodianship of their lands. The Indigenous Ranger Program is a terrific program, which is, indeed, funded by the Commonwealth government. Yet critical to the sustainability of those programs are the people who work in those programs being able to live in a sustainable community that is properly serviced with clean water, adequate housing and adequate community facilities. For example, in the community of Balgo, I saw that the older women were staying, in an aged-care context, in the women's housing facility and that the renal and aged-care facility that had been built and set up for future services was not being used at all. In the communities of Kalumburu and Balgo their requests for men's shed funding from the Commonwealth had been refused and rejected.

Today, in making these remarks, I really want to underscore and underline the importance of the participation of First Nations communities in the decisions that affect them. I really want to commend Senator Dodson and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy for the work that they have done in this regard. In particular, I commend Senator Dodson, in his role as the shadow minister at the time, for his ongoing commitment to fighting for direct representation for First Nations communities so that they can have oversight of and participate in the decisions that affect them.

We are yet to see the next iteration of the government's Indigenous voice to government. I look forward to being updated about that. The government said that the voice is a voice to government; it's not a voice to parliament. The government cannot stop agencies and people that this parliament calls from giving evidence, lest they want to interfere with the independence of that voice. So, on this anniversary, I very much look forward to continuing to work with First Nations communities and ensuring that we continue the fight to have the gap—which is very evident in people's life outcomes in our nation—closed and addressed.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd just like to make some very brief remarks. It hadn't been my intention to speak on this, but, having listened to the very careful and considered contributions of senators, I thought I would make my own.

I'd like to point to why I think there's opportunity for hope and why a recent event should be seen through the lens of greater Australian consciousness around Indigenous matters. I point to the outrage in regard to the destruction of the Juukan Gorge—an outrageous event. But as I have reflected, I think it was the outrage of non-Indigenous Australians that really catapulted that gross event into the public consciousness. The outrage that many, many Australians felt—not just Indigenous Australians—about that particular event for me demonstrates actually that things are changing and things are moving in a more positive direction.

When I travel around Western Australia, much of my activity is focused on supporting what I call new Australians and supporting and travelling around rural and regional communities. What strikes me about new Australians or multicultural communities when they go about celebrating their heritage in our country is the fact that they always begin their events with an acknowledgement of country. When I think about what the future of our country looks like, when new Australians or those that have come from multicultural communities of longer standing are incorporating into their own events and their own appreciation of their heritage an appreciation of Indigenous heritage, I think that can only bode well for the future. I would add this: when I travel around to some of the communities that Senator Pratt mentioned—Balgo, for example, or Noonkanbah or Roebourne, where I was this week—while there is disappointment and there is concern, I actually see and I continue to see an energy and a passion for local communities finding local solutions that work for them.

One in particular that struck me is a night patrol in Halls Creek. It's a very, very successful night patrol, which looks after and cares for young children who might be out on the streets late at night. What strikes me about that, on the positive side of the ledger, is the fact that it's a local solution driven by local people. What does frustrate me is how difficult it is to find even a modest amount of public money to support a local initiative like that. I think this is where the frustration and the concern come from for many Australians: why is it that sometimes the simplest things, which local people have identified as fixing their local issues, are the things that are the hardest to get attention to and the hardest to get some public funding for?

I think that in the Australian community there's a great sense of disappointment that we have not progressed further towards improving Indigenous disadvantage, but I'm someone who believes that if there's more granularity empowering local communities to take responsibility for finding local solutions and that if we put more responsibility on local and state governments, we'll get better local outcomes. I'm someone who believes that rather than restricting ideas to just two or three we should actually be more accustomed, better comfortable, with the idea of identifying a broader suite of things that together can work to correct and to reverse some of the outrageous disadvantage that we see in our country.

I'm someone that sees clearly the disadvantaged and I'm someone who wants to see more and better action and outcomes. But I'm also someone who encourages others to just look around; I think they will find positive signs of an improving consciousness in Australians and particularly non-Indigenous Australians of their desire and their concern to want to see better outcomes. I thought I'd just make those observations.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday marked 13 years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to Australia's stolen generations. First Nations people waited a long time for that apology, an event which recognised the hurt and pain inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a result of government policies and practices which removed children from their families, their country and their culture.

This chamber ought to be painfully familiar with the numbers which describe Indigenous disadvantage. As my colleague Senator Dodson pointed out in his remarks earlier, the shocking truth is that, as horrifying and unjust as these numbers are, the indicators are worse again for stolen generations and their children, their grandchildren and their siblings. A 2019 report from the Healing Foundation sets this out. When compared to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, stolen generations are 50 per cent more likely to be charged by police, 15 per cent more likely to consume alcohol at risky levels and 30 per cent less likely to report being in good health.

Of course, the trauma of forced removal and family break-up has enduring consequences for First Nations families, and they are wideranging. They are impacting men, women and children. The mechanisms by which this trauma is transmitted may be complex, but the indicators are straightforward. Three in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a male intimate partner, and First Nations women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to a family violence assault and 10 times more likely to die from a violent assault than other women.

Last week I spent a couple of days in Bundjalung country in the Northern Rivers, talking with workers who support First Nations families. I spoke to workers in legal centres, in refuges, in housing organisations and in family service organisations. I thank the workers at Bugal Nah, Bunjum, Jarjum preschool, the Northern Rivers Women's Domestic Violence and Court Advocacy Service, Rekindling The Spirit and Jali, because all of them took time with me to explain their perspective on what it meant for them as First Nations people to work in their community to drive solutions to the problems that they perceive and to leverage their knowledge of country, culture and family to bring local solutions to local problems.

These people were inspiring and also moving. Some of the stories were very hard to hear. But these people are moving forward, doing everything they can in their communities to lead in their communities and to take on difficult issues. But their optimism—and they are optimists—was tempered by a kind of despair too, because the resources available to these people in these communities blighted by missions, racism, removal and cruelty are so limited.

Women's Safety New South Wales found that frontline Aboriginal domestic and family violence specialist services had reported a significant increase in client numbers since the beginning of COVID-19, including an increase in the complexity of cases before them. Workers in the Northern Rivers told me that what they urgently need is long-term affordable accommodation. But none of the government's safe places grants went to the Northern Rivers, despite there being many applicants, and the actual story is that this is forcing women to either stay living with perpetrators or face down homelessness for themselves and their children. These workers are saying so clearly that they want to lead. They want to lead in their own communities to heal families, to heal communities and to respond to violence, and they want to be given the power and the resources from government to develop their own solutions. They want to do it their way.

One of the first acts of the Morrison government after the 2019 election, after being re-elected, was to cut the funding for the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum. It is the only peak body specifically tasked with representing services working to prevent and respond to domestic and family violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It plays an essential role in ensuring that the voices and views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children are heard in our national conversation, and the Morrison government should give this forum the sustainable funding that it needs to continue this important work. We cannot continue to ignore the compounding effect that racism and gender inequality have in exacerbating levels of violence, and ending violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women must be a national priority. Every single Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman, man and child deserves to live a life free from violence and fear and to thrive, secure in their culture and identity.

We all have a role in play in closing the gap. What that really means is listening to, supporting and empowering First Nations communities. For services, that means empowering First Nations to lead in the design and the delivery of the services in their own communities. This will require us to do things differently and to understand that power might need to be devolved to others and that decisions might be taken elsewhere. It also means listening to First Nations people when they give us some very specific guidance—a very specific invitation about how they want to enact this vision for their own leadership. The Uluru Statement from the Heart represents one of the most important such invitations in a very long time. Labor is committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. We are committed to a constitutionally enshrined voice and a makarrata commission to oversee agreement, treaty making and a national process of truth telling.

First Nations people have told us of the torment of their powerlessness. It is time for us to truly respond. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.