Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In responding to this motion I would firstly like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunawal people, and those of the land in my electorate of Deakin, the Wurundjeri. Many may think that Deakin is just an outer metropolitan seat with little Indigenous history to tell; however, they are mistaken. My electorate falls across the Mullum Mullum Valley, which is Wurundjeri for a place of big birds, a region with an ancient terrestrial link to the Wurundjeri people, and it is to this day a gathering place for Indigenous Australians.

It is an honour and a privilege to take part in this debate today and to strongly support the Prime Minister’s motion for an apology, which has been offered in a real spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation. It was, in the words of former Prime Minister Paul Keating, a ‘day of open hearts’ for Australians—a day when our country aspired to find one of its golden threads in our national character. It most certainly did that day, and I am extremely proud to have played a part and given my support then as I do now.

Through this apology we have demonstrated that as a country we have matured enough to understand that saying sorry is a critical form of respect for the traditional owners of the land. Apologising is important for healing and for taking reconciliation further. If that was ever in dispute, one simply had to hear the rapturous applause by all who were present here on that proud day. The Prime Minister’s apology last week was a defining moment, not just for a new government as its very first order of business but, without a shadow of a doubt, as a nation-defining moment that will be talked about, debated and reflected upon for generations to come.

I am confident that those future generations will be able to look back with the knowledge that the Prime Minister’s apology last week was the first major step this nation took to turn a new page in our country’s history. I believe those future generations will want to know where and when exactly the healing began and who our leaders were that put us on the road to righting those past wrongs and taking care of the unfinished business.

I am proud to say today that it was this government and this Prime Minister who brought our country together—Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, Labor and coalition like—in an expression of sorrow never before seen. I also commend the opposition for offering such immediate bipartisan support for this motion. I think it was so important for many people—people perhaps not previously engaged in the issue of reconciliation—to see that handshake over the dispatch box. And for those who perhaps still struggled with the notion of a formal apology, the Prime Minister made it simple: imagine if this had happened to you. In fact, one need not think much further than that simple thought. While as a parliament we expressed our sorrow on that day, it was not a sorrowful day as such—it was not a dark or mournful day—or one that was designed to make this generation of Australians feel guilty for the acts of previous ones; but it was a day to reflect on dark events in our history that must not and cannot ever be repeated.

Might I say that the idea that saying sorry somehow ascribes guilt to this generation of Australians is completely misguided. However, it is something that we heard many times from the former Howard government. It is instead an extremely positive and healing process. I will never forget the emotion, the excitement and the anticipation that came with it, not only in the House but all around the building and out there in the nation. We can now build on the positive momentum created in this place last week and start building new partnerships with Indigenous Australians, based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

I believe that education is one of the keys to that, not only for the current generation, who are still attending school, but more for people of my generation—people who did attend school and were taught history but were not taught that page of Australia’s history. Whilst we attended high schools, or technical schools, as they were called in my day, there was history but we were taught about English royalty or maybe even about Japanese hierarchy and royalty. We certainly were not taught about what had happened to Indigenous Australians in the near past of our own country’s history. I believe that the sooner a program like that is actually put across to people who may not understand the full implications of the stolen generations the sooner we will get an even greater understanding. When that happens I believe reconciliation will not be in the minds of many. As it should be, it will be in the minds of all. On this basis I strongly commend the motion to the House.

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