Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand today.

On 26 May 1997, the then Attorney-General, the Hon. Daryl Williams, tabled a report which resonated across Australia. The report was commissioned by a Labor Attorney-General, the Hon. Michael Lavarch. That report was: Bringing them home: report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Two days later on 28 May there was a short debate in this chamber. Acknowledging the tabling of the report, the then Leader of the Opposition, the member for Brand, moved a motion seeking to suspend standing orders. He called for an unreserved apology for the policies of separation imposed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. I seconded that motion, which said in part that the report:

... presents the nation with an unprecedented historical opportunity to render justice and restitution to Indigenous Australians, for the good of all Australians;

This is an opportunity since lost because of the obstinacy of this government. There was no debate on that motion in the House or in the Senate. The Prime Minister did not speak to the motion. This government was so lacking in insight, so negligent and so devoid of compassion that it could not understand the impact that the report recommendations had on Indigenous Australians and, indeed, on the broader non-Indigenous community.

On 27 May 1967 a referendum was put to the Australian people to remove the impediment to the Commonwealth making special laws in relation to Indigenous Australians. Next Sunday we mark the 40th anniversary of the passing of the referendum with a 90.77 per cent affirmative vote. That referendum opened the way for the Commonwealth to demonstrate leadership on Indigenous matters.

Over the subsequent 30 years there were changes—not immediately—in the understanding of the issues at the heart of the conduct of public affairs in relation to Indigenous people. In those ensuing years we saw a growth of political activism within the Indigenous community and the non-Indigenous community. The High Court’s Mabo decision in 1992 recognised the original occupants’ right to possession of their traditional lands. The Native Title Act 1993 was the Keating government’s response to the Mabo decision. The High Court’s Wik decision in 1996 recognised that native title could coexist with pastoral leases.

Then, in 1997, the Bringing them home report was released—and, to its profound shame, this government further abandoned its responsibility. The mishandling of the report is one of the more dishonourable episodes of this government’s history. This report was described by the then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Dodson, as the sorriest of sorry stories. He was absolutely right.

Bringing them home underpins the truism that the problems of today are inextricably linked to the history of dispossession, discrimination and social dislocation that is the shared experience of Australia’s Indigenous people. The report was not solely about material reparation. It signalled the way forward for symbolic reconciliation. It provided the direction for the country to follow in terms of what is important: spiritual reconciliation.

Within our powers as parliamentarians, indeed as Australians, it is important to address matters of the spirit. There can never be reconciliation between Aboriginal people and other Australians unless we understand that there are spiritual issues at the heart of the relationship. That is why it is so important that government lead this country on a journey of spiritual healing, a journey which recognises our history, which acknowledges white Australia’s attitudes in past centuries and which recognises that Indigenous heritage is at the heart of our shared heritage.

None of us can change the past, but we can all share in shaping the future. We must recognise our past, in this instance by acknowledging the truths of the Bringing them home report and, having acknowledged that past, reconcile then walk together into a future which as Australians we can be proud to have created. The future of our nation is diminished unless, together, we take this step forward. We cannot remain silent as this Prime Minister has remained silent. We must acknowledge the elephant in the room by making a sincere and profound apology on behalf of this nation to its Indigenous people.

Today I attended the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing them home report in federal parliament. Let me conclude with words from the invitation to that event:

People who are suffering can find healing, and a new respect can grow between Indigenous Australians and the wider community, if we decide afresh to bring home the Stolen Generations.

If you look at the website of the Fred Hollows Foundation, you will see that it shows that 24 per cent of Aboriginal Australian men live till the age of 65 and only 35 per cent of Aboriginal women live till the age of 65. We cannot continue to tolerate that sort of thing in this country of ours. An apology and a reconciliation will go a long way to improving those figures.