Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was fortunate enough to have the honour to be in the federal parliament the day Kevin Rudd expressed his apology on behalf of the nation to the stolen generations. There's no doubt it was a euphoric occasion, marked on the one hand by great sadness but also happiness that at last the nation had come to terms with the abhorrent and sorry policies of past governments. The hideousness of it all, of course, was that we had to wait so long and the fact that the previous Howard government just resisted the idea of having an apology, saying sorry and talking about a black armband view of history. Those of us who had the honour of being there that day, and those around the nation, saw the tears of expression coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were members of the stolen generation and their families, which left us, I think, feeling that things had changed. And things did change, but still there is work to be done. I will come to that in a moment. We can't run away from our sorry history. We shouldn't run away from our sorry history. We need to acknowledge that history and understand there is still work to be done and that. In the context of the Northern Territory in particular and, indeed, the ACT and Jervis Bay, we the Commonwealth need to compensate those surviving members of the stolen generation—something which we in Labor are committed to doing.

Let's just go back a bit, if I may, to remind ourselves that between the 1890s and the 1970s Aboriginal children were stolen from their families. It included many families where one parent was an Aboriginal person. Between 1905 and 1969, it's estimated that one in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were stolen. Over the years of these policies, it's estimated that over 2,000 Aboriginal kids in the Northern Territory were removed from their families by government officers and taken to seven different missions. Throughout all of this period, the Northern Territory was governed by the Commonwealth. Children were removed from their families at any age, but between one-half to two-thirds of children forcibly removed were taken before the age of five years. Can you just imagine it? If you are a parent, can you have in your mind the horror of children being taken without consultation, without agreement, without any reasonable approach, without concession, and the parents and mothers, in particular, left without hope?

Sadly, this was the plight of far too many, and we're still wearing the consequences of that: the intergenerational trauma that exists in families where parents—and grandparents, for that matter—were stolen. Children were taken away and trained to be domestic servants. They were cheap labour. Many were abused emotionally and sexually. One in six girls ran away, one in 11 girls became pregnant while apprenticed and one in 12 died. All of this was because of abhorrent racism. No other explanation is required.

This was about smoothing the pillow of the dying race. It was a classic assimilationist policy post Second World War. Today in the Northern Territory we estimate there are around 400 surviving members of the stolen generations. One of those about whom I want to speak briefly is Barbara Cummings, who 35 years ago, along with others, was a primary mover and instigator for a conference at Kormilda College, at which I was present, the first occasion that members of the stolen generations from across the Northern Territory were brought together. This was very important. It led to the long road home. Barbara was responsible for a book, Take this child: from Kahlin Compound to the Retta Dixon Children's Home, about the story of children in institutions in the Territory where she and many of her friends were institutionalised. Barbara fought her whole adult life to have stolen generations properly recognised by governments of all political persuasions, and for not just symbolism but compensation. Sadly, much to our disgrace, she wasn't present at the Rudd apology here in this parliament, which was such an important event in our history. Also sadly, Barbara is now in declining health. I'd like to hope that this government has the good grace to finally pass an act for compensation for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Jervis Bay who were stolen, whilst she's able to understand what we're doing. Surely to goodness we can do that. I plead to the government: why don't you just do it?

There are many other members of the stolen generation with whom I am very close, some of whom have passed away in the struggle, taking the Commonwealth to the High Court. People like—I won't mention their full names—Mr Kruger, Ms Cubillo and Mr Gunner lost their cases. Others such as Harold Thomas in the Top End and Harold Furber in Central Australia are still fighting for the recognition that members of the stolen generation so properly deserve. I know of others, one of whom was my own staff member, a non-Aboriginal person, Jack Crosby, who, with his partner, Sue Roman, was primarily involved in instigating a case where the children from Retta Dixon, as a result of the royal commission into child abuse, were able to take the Commonwealth to court over its failure of duty of care. That, to my knowledge, was the only occasion where members of the stolen generations in the Northern Territory have had their case recognised for this question of duty of care and been compensated as a result of a court ruling—really quite important. It was not volunteered by the Commonwealth, I might say, much to our disgrace, but something so very important to them. Sadly, Jack passed away not too long ago, but he was a very close personal friend.

I am pleased to say that the Shorten Labor team have committed ourselves to establishing a compensation scheme for survivors of the stolen generations in Commonwealth jurisdictions. That compensation scheme will provide an ex gratia payment of $75,000. We'll also establish a funeral assistance fund of $7,000 to assist members of the stolen generation with the cost of funerals. We will also establish a $10 million national healing fund to support healing for the stolen generations and their families in recognition of the intergenerational effects of forced removal, something which is yet to be properly understood by the majority of the population but which comes home to me almost daily. To try and respond to the unacceptably high rates of children of first nations peoples currently in out-of-home care, the Shorten Labor government will convene a national summit on first-nations children in our first 100 days. These are very, very important initiatives and something I'm very proud to associate myself with.

In many respects, for many they've come too late because so many of the stolen generations have passed. But we as a nation, it is not too late for us to finish the journey that we've embarked upon as a result of the apology. I want to acknowledge the leadership of Kevin Rudd at the time of the apology and reiterate how sad it is that we had to wait so long for that recognition. It's not a question of understanding or accepting a 'black armband' view of history; it's about acknowledging our past; understanding the absurdity, the stupidity, the danger and the cruelty of past government policies; and accepting that we as a Commonwealth are responsible and that as a responsible Commonwealth we should legitimately pay compensation to those who were affected.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my earliest political mentors was a great guy by the name of Doug Puxty, a resident of my hometown of Cessnock. He and his wife, Helen, were and are close friends of my family. Doug has been an amazing contributor to his community as a careers adviser at the local high school, as a member of the Labor Party and as a member of the Catholic Church, particularly his work with St Vincent de Paul, the Two Bishops Trust and many others. He's not particularly well at the moment, in his early 80s, and I wish him the very best for the future.

I mention Doug Puxty because I've never forgotten that Doug Puxty, in a very simple way, gave me my first realisation of how badly our Indigenous Australians had been treated. Yes, I knew the history, but he somehow brought it home to a personal level. He told me that he remembered playing football with Indigenous players and going to the pub after for a drink—as you did in those days, and some possibly still do now—but without his Indigenous teammates. His Indigenous teammates weren't allowed to go to the pub for a drink. As members know, they weren't allowed to visit hotels. That story, as simple and obvious as it seems, has always stayed with me.

I've been in this place 22 years and I've had many occasions to be emotionally overwhelmed by the events before the House, but three stand out which are relevant to the motion from the Prime Minister that we are addressing today. The first was early in my time here, in 1997. It was the time of the debate around the government's response to the Wik decision. They were energetic and robust times. Of course, the Howard government—and I have no intention of politicising this debate—wasn't providing a response which was welcomed by the Wik peoples or Indigenous Australians more generally. I vividly remember what must have been more than a thousand Indigenous Australians forming a ring around Parliament House. I believe we may have sat right through to Saturday on that occasion to finish the Wik legislation, to shepherd it through the House. There had been a number of amendments, and I'm pretty sure we were kept back to finish our work. I remember very vividly being dropped off at the base, if you like, of the Reps—the ramp up into the Reps entrance—and encountering this ring of Indigenous Australians, and walking to the Reps entrance and sort of high-fiving them or tapping their hands as we walked up to the entrance. It was a nice time to be a member of the Labor Party because we felt we were delivering a greater level of justice than the Howard government had provided.

The second time was throughout the period immediately after the tabling of the stolen generation report, the Bringing them home report. Again, John Howard, the Prime Minister at the time, had determined that he would move in the House a motion of regret for the impact of what had happened to so many Indigenous Australians through a dark period of our history. The Labor Party was rightly, in my view, of the view that we needed a stronger form of words than that, and Kim Beazley, the Leader of the Opposition at the time, had moved an amendment changing the words to a full apology. If I remember correctly, that debate rolled on for many days, if not weeks, somehow. The Labor Party's tacticians, I suppose you would say, determined to present our case, decided that every Labor member, every member of the opposition, would use their adjournment speech to read one story out of this amazing, challenging and confronting report. I remember people being in tears as they read these excerpts out of the report. It was a very emotional and confronting time, and a time that none of us should forget.

The third occasion, of course, was when Kevin Rudd, as Prime Minister, finally delivered the apology to the stolen generation—the event which we are commemorating today. I remember the apology very well, and it was an emotional time. The galleries were packed, of course. People were expressing their emotions. But I remember even more vividly sitting in the Members' Hall, where we must have been watching, observing what was probably a smoking ceremony, amongst other things. But they had people re-enacting the events of the earlier period in our history, including women sitting on the floor in their traditional dress, charcoaling the faces of young children—and of course, as we all know, mothers charcoaled the faces of their children so that their children wouldn't be taken. The authorities had made the determination that full-blooded Indigenous Australians were beyond help, were beyond redemption, and they were left with their mothers, and so their mothers would attempt to make their children's faces darker—so they wouldn't be taken away.

So it was a historic occasion, 10 years ago. We've come a long way, but we have so much further to go. The Closing the Gap report tells us that. We must all unite, surely, to ensure we go the next yards. The fact is that Indigenous Australians are still more likely to be unemployed, less likely to own a home, likely to die younger, more likely to be in jail—the list is long. While we've made some gains, we do have a long way to go. I'm very proud that the Leader of the Opposition has put forward a commitment to a compensation scheme and other arrangements. My strongest hope is that the parliament in the future avoids the divisions that I've experienced in the past in this place, can speak with one voice and ensures that justice is finally delivered.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's important to be in this place but even more so when you get to speak on something like this, following someone such as the member for Hunter, who was actually here during that time. I wasn't here during that time. I was at home, raising my own children, but I know something about removal of children from families. My grandmother was taken at 14, given to the Nazis in Poland and put into a work camp. She never saw her parents or her family again. So this apology and the notion that children could be taken from their families is something that my family grew up with. My babcia—my grandmother—always spoke fondly of her family, and I imagine that is what it would be like for many of the children who were taken.

I had the privilege of growing up with a girl from kindergarten through to high school. In our entire journey through school, from all of those K-6 years right up until high school, it wasn't until we got to year 8 or year 9 that her family admitted that they were Indigenous. Such was the fear that ran through her family that that child and her sibling would be or could be removed from their family that even then in the eighties and nineties their family did not feel safe to admit their Aboriginality. They didn't own up to it, they didn't own it and they weren't proud of it. They didn't celebrate; they denied it. I can understand why this apology has had such an effect.

We gave an acknowledgement of country after that historic event, and I start them with something like, 'I acknowledge the traditional lands where' this meeting, speech, even or whatever I'm doing takes place. I always follow with, 'I commit myself to reducing the high rates of incarceration of young people so it is not the case that, if you are young and Aboriginal you are more likely to be in jail than you are to be at university. I commit myself to reducing the numbers of children in care, away from their families, culture and community, which has doubled in the last 10 years since the apology to the stolen generations. And I commit myself to reducing the rates of family violence in Aboriginal communities, which is 32 times higher for Aboriginal women.' This is how I open all of my public addresses, and it's a reminder to all of us that this is not a series of words where we simply acknowledge that we're on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge and we provide that to re-energise people and remind people it is important.

I am pretty devastated to see that there is not a Liberal speaker on this today or when it was in here the other day, and there was not for Closing the Gap. I was incredibly proud to be at the anniversary of the apology when it was here but very distressed not to see any members of the government there except for the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. I make that statement not to politicise this but because I just had to sit through a committee meeting with one of the government members who didn't know that there were 35,000 Aboriginal children currently in foster care, away from their families. I know that they're not really governing for the people, they're not really on the same planet as us and they're certainly not on the same page, let alone in the same storybook, but I would have thought a number like that, which is so significantly larger than the number we started with 10 years ago when we gave this apology, would have been a number that nearly every single person in this House knew, understood and was trying to reconcile. In the world of that member of the government party ignorance is obviously bliss, but it is incredibly disheartening to know that people that I walk in the corridors of this place with are not here for the same reasons. We can be ideologically opposed or whatever you like, but, when it comes to this, when it comes to doing justice and making right the errors of our past, every single person in this place should understand what it is. We've all had access to the Closing the Gap reports. I get given one every year that we do it. We have a statement. I don't know where his head is at when those statements are given, but he's clearly not listening twice as much as he's speaking.

When that apology was given, I wasn't here, but I watched intently at the look of pride on the people gathered inside and outside of this place—in the galleries, on the lawns. The member for Hunter talked about the ring of Aboriginal people circling this building. It was an outpouring of relief that past wrongs had finally been recognised. We had really looked into the nation's heart and said that we were wrong. I remember feeling that outside and not having that same level of emotion that was felt in here, walking around in my community and thinking: 'Okay, we've done something. We've actually rectified something here.' We've said that we were wrong about so many things almost as one—except for a few who refused to be in the chamber when that apology was given. We almost all shook hands with people we didn't know, and we formed friendships and saw firsthand the effects that the apology had on some of the most disaffected people in Australia.

I am always proud to be a member of the Labor Party but I'm incredibly proud that we had the strength and tenacity to do something about this. Everything is always hard until it's done. For years and years we were told that we couldn't say that we were sorry. In his apology the then Prime Minister said, 'We sought a future where this parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never happen again.' We have 35,000 first nation children currently not growing up with their family, culture, communities or connections to the land. I wouldn't say that that apology has been heeded in most circles. I would say that that's a pretty disappointing outcome.

The apology did lead to the development and the action around Closing the Gap, and we collectively gave a commitment to Indigenous Australians that we would back our words with some action. Despite these efforts, there is still too much more to be done; and I say too much more, not because it is an insurmountable task but because it takes will and it takes an absolute commitment to doing it. It takes for people to understand that there are 35,000 children currently in care. It takes for people to understand what that looks like and what that means, how we get them out of there, and it creates an opportunity to rectify that.

We need to accept that inequality, disadvantage and health outcomes for Aboriginal people are well below world standards and also that it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. I recognise that my community of Lindsay requires a very different approach to the communities in Central Australia. And having the largest urban settlement of Aboriginal people in Western Sydney, I do know that that approach is going to be very different to what we might see in Townsville or what we might see in Ceduna or in the Goldfields or in Alice Springs.

I reiterate my commitment to working with all of the Aboriginal communities to achieve their goals. I was very proud to go to and visit Alice Springs a couple of times last year and to make a connection with the Tangentyere women's safety group, who are trying to better the lives of themselves and the outcomes for women up there and also for their children. I do note that NAIDOC Week's theme this year, to be celebrated in the middle of the year, is all about women and the important role women play in those communities.

We need to work together to ensure that the evidence based data and strong cultural understanding are actually realised for real outcomes and work towards proper jobs, positive educational outcomes and, importantly, better health outcomes. It is not acceptable that by virtue of your Aboriginality you are going to die quicker than someone with white skin. That's not something to be accepting of in 2018 in this country. It is not something we should ever dismiss say by saying, 'That's their lot in life.' We need to close those gaps and work together to ensure young Aboriginal people are not over-represented in our jails, which is currently the case. That's what an apology means. That's what it means when you say 'sorry'. I never forced my kids and the kids I taught to say 'sorry'. If they hit their brother or their sister, I never forced them to say sorry because I don't think that's the way you change their behaviour. But if you are sorry then you be sorry and you do sorry. It is not just a word that rolls off the tongue; it is an action, a doing word. We do not simply say, 'Sorry about that,' and move on. It's actually, 'I'm sorry and I'm not going to do it again.' Otherwise, it is useless to say it, in my opinion, because you will just be saying it every other day every time you commit an offence.

When Kevin Rudd said in his speech about the need for a future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity, that is essentially what the apology was aiming to do. It is dissatisfying and disappointing and, quite frankly, heartbreaking that we are still here trying to work together to rectify this 10 years later. The Labor Party has committed itself to working with First Australians. We've committed to the redress scheme or the compensation scheme, not that money takes things away or makes things better. We are committed to ensuring that first nations leaders are heard and, more importantly, that their ideas are given credence, and that it's not us telling people what they need to know or to do; it's us allowing them to help us. I'm proud to be a member of the Labor Party, who apologised, and commit myself to continuing to close the gap.

Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where I have the privilege of speaking today, the Ngunawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present and, of course, their emerging elders. This is their land, and so it was peacefully for many, many thousands of years, but, following the arrival of the British boats in the 18th century, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the traditional owners of this land, have suffered. I can't pretend to understand or possibly even begin to understand how hard it must be to endure the pain that Indigenous Australians have. I cannot possibly begin to understand or pretend that I'm not ashamed for what they have experienced, because I am. What I can do, though, is say sorry. I can say sorry and, in my role as a federal parliamentarian, I can advocate for change to make sure that neither they nor any other race of people have to ever, ever suffer such horrible treatment again. So, to all Indigenous people with Indigenous heritage, I say sorry—I say sorry, just as Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister at the time, said sorry on behalf of our nation in 2008. It was a very small gesture, of course, but it meant so much to so many people.

I even remember where I was on that day, 10 years ago, when Kevin Rudd delivered that monumental speech. I was in Musgrave Park in South Brisbane watching a television underneath a big tarpaulin that had been erected. I remember the feeling that was in the air on that day. It was a stillness that comes with anticipation. I remember how time slowed down when the Prime Minister got up on his feet. I remember the tears when he uttered those words: 'We say sorry.'

If you know of Musgrave Park in South Brisbane, it's of really significant cultural importance to First Australians. As a remnant of the former Kurilpa Aboriginal camping ground, the park has been used as a meeting place for Indigenous people for many, many years. The park lays just a stone's throw from Boundary Street in West End. Today, Boundary Street is a major road in Brisbane's south. While it may be a major road in Brisbane's south, it carries a really shameful history. You see, for many years, Boundary Street acted, as the name suggests, as a boundary line. At certain times on certain days, this line was used to separate Indigenous people from the other inhabitants of Brisbane—absolutely shameful. Six days a week at 4 pm, and all day on Sundays, Aboriginal people were exiled to the far side of Boundary Street by troopers with stockwhips—absolutely shameful. This racist policy has long since been abolished, thank goodness, but the street name remains as a reminder of our city's shameful past.

This clearly isn't the only shameful policy that our nation once inflicted upon our Indigenous people, who weren't even recognised in our national census until after 'yes' was recorded in the 1967 referendum. But what stands out as our true national shame is the policy which Prime Minister Rudd was acknowledging in his landmark speech. That is the stolen generations policy. Official government estimates suggest that between one in 10 and one in three Indigenous Australian children were forcibly taken from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970. These children were taught to reject their heritage and that their culture was evil, and they were forced to adopt white culture. Their names were often changed. They were forbidden to speak traditional languages. Children were forced to assimilate through foster families and institutions, where abuse and neglect were far, far too common. I can only imagine the pain and hurt that these families suffer and, to this day, continue to suffer. So, again, I apologise on our nation's behalf.

I still struggle to understand, though, why my electoral neighbour, the member for Dickson, Peter Dutton, could be so heartless as to boycott that apology on that day. Now Australia looks back on his actions on that day as truly disgraceful and as a strong signifier of that man's character. I have to say that despite the member for Dickson shamefully digging in his heels, we are making progress.

Labor will establish a compensation scheme for members of the stolen generation in the Commonwealth jurisdictions, as well as a $10 million national healing fund to support the stolen generations and their families. Labor will immediately begin consulting on the form of a voice to parliament for first-nations people in response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Referendum Council recommendations. But we all know that policies and legislation can only do so much.

My hope for the future comes from people. Having spoken with young people in my electorate of Longman I recognise great respect for Indigenous culture in the community. I have hope that this respect will bring with it the change that is needed because we have still so far to go. I recently heard from a young Indigenous woman as she spoke at the Lions Youth of the Year ceremony at St Columban's College in Caboolture last week. She is a very, very proud Wiradjuri woman—I think I pronounced that correctly—from the south-west inland region of New South Wales. She spoke with such great strength. She spoke with strength and she spoke with dignity. The speech she gave at Lions Youth of the Year was titled, 'I call for a Treaty'. It was powerful and full of hope. It was a five-minute speech, and when she closed the speech she said:

I am looking forward to a future where all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be seen as equals with separate identities that date back over tens of thousands of years.

This is what we are working towards. We are working towards closing the gap and we are working towards equality. And while we still may have members of parliament who refuse to acknowledge our past, it gives me hope that there are strong young Indigenous people, like that young woman who spoke at the Lions Youth of the Year, who are looking to our future and shaping our future.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which this parliament meets, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present. In December 2007 the government changed. When you change the government, you do change the nation. After my appointment as Leader of the House, I was very honoured to be in a position of having discussions as part of that Rudd Labor cabinet about the timetable for parliament's resumption. It was determined, with the support and leadership of the Prime Minister and, in particular, the then-Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, that the parliament should indeed begin with the apology to the stolen generations.

At the time, of course, this followed years of indecision—years in which Prime Minister Howard said that it would be inappropriate for the parliament to apologise. It was argued that those who would deliver that apology were not personally responsible for taking Indigenous children from their parents over the previous decades. The events of that momentous day show how wrong that view was. It was certainly the proudest day of the 22 years I'll celebrate as a member of this parliament this coming Friday. It was a day when we as a parliament righted a wrong. It was a day when, after years of denial, the parliament recognised the injustices and inhumanity visited upon the stolen generations.

Those who were there that day will all remember it. This was a time when the nation paused to reflect our history, and indeed that day made history. I want to pay tribute in particular to the generosity of the members of the stolen generations themselves who came to this parliament, sat around that chamber and weren't bitter about their experience. They accepted the spirit in which the apology was given by Prime Minister Rudd on behalf of the nation. I looked up as the Prime Minister spoke, and I saw scores of members of the stolen generation weeping, sitting in their seats trembling, holding each other's hands.

I've seen since, of course, the depiction of meetings out on the front lawn and right around our nation, where the response was the same. My son's then primary school stopped to watch this historic event on a large screen. The members of the stolen generation, that day, received just a little bit of warm-hearted response that helped make them feel as though the nation understood, in a small way, the incredible trauma that had been done to them. It will indeed be remembered for a very long time. As Prime Minister Rudd said:

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 a proud culture, we say sorry.

As the speech continued, everyone in the parliament knew that we were doing the right thing, as did the millions of Australians gathered around the nation. And indeed, when Prime Minister Rudd finished that address, around the nation, as well as in the chamber, they leapt to their feet to applaud.

Of course, the apology was not the end of the story; it was just the beginning. We knew at the time that the apology needed to be backed up with concrete action, that it was just a step on the road to reconciliation. Importantly, establishing the Closing the gap report to parliament was an important step forward. Some progress has been made in three out of the seven targets. They include the target to halve the gap in child mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade, the target that 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds would be enrolled in early education by 2025, and the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. Not on track are life expectancy, employment, reading and writing, and school attendance.

I was somewhat disappointed by some of the reporting and public discussion of the Prime Minister's report to parliament on Closing the Gap, because there was a tone of pessimism. That, I believe, is a wrong analysis. It will take generations to close the gap—indeed, decades of bipartisanship. Let me quote former Prime Minister Rudd when he spoke at the National Press Club just last month. He said:

… these targets were meant to be ambitious; they were meant to challenge us all; because we had to shake ourselves out of our national torpor that business as usual was fine, or we could just fiddle at the edges of indigenous disadvantage.

Mr Rudd went on to say that, while we must accept our failures and act to correct them, we must also celebrate our progress. Because of Closing the Gap, more Indigenous children are finishing school. Because of Closing the Gap, fewer infants are dying. Because of Closing the Gap, more youngsters are receiving early childhood education. We have a long way to go, but we can't give up. We have a responsibility to the First Australians, as privileged as we are to live in the nation with the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet, to close the gap across the board so that these issues of education, health, employment and life expectancy are all dealt with.

The apology and Closing the Gap are also critical to the achievement of broader reconciliation. This requires collaboration and it requires that we listen to Indigenous people. Hence the importance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. This calls for a voice to the parliament. Who could disagree with the concept that Indigenous Australians are entitled to put forward their view about legislation before this parliament that impacts them? What they are not asking for is a third chamber. They are asking for a voice to the parliament. It was very pleasing that Labor have said that we will work towards achieving that. I'd ask the Prime Minister to reconsider the rejection of the Uluru statement. It is important that these issues be bipartisan. We must engage with Indigenous people who have gone through a process of consultation with communities around the nation, and not just dismiss them, and certainly not misrepresent what they are asking for. We have a long way to go to achieve reconciliation in this country, but the apology was an important step. It's one that I'm proud, as a member of the House of Representatives, to be associated with. It is very important that we have signified the tenth anniversary of this historic occasion.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 11 November 1998, I made my first speech to this parliament. In that first speech, I said sorry to the members of the stolen generations. It seemed to me such a simple and necessary thing to do. I couldn't understand why it took 10 more years for the parliament as a whole to do that. But I was so proud when, in 2008, Kevin Rudd delivered the apology on behalf of Labor—the government of the day—and the opposition responded. The work that Kevin Rudd and Jenny Macklin did in drafting that apology and making sure that stolen generations members were able to fill the galleries, fill the parliament and fill the courtyard, and, for the first time, really make Parliament House theirs and truly a Parliament House for the whole nation was absolutely unforgettable.

We needed to apologise because governments removed Indigenous children from their families, from their homes and from their land not because of abuse or neglect but because of the colour of their skin. Families and communities across the nation were destroyed, and many have never fully recovered. There are many people who were never able to find the parents, the families or the communities that they were taken from. There are so many stories of people who found out where they were from just a little too late, whose parents had died before they reconnected.

It was Paul Keating in his Redfern Park Speech who said about the treatment of Indigenous Australians by non-Indigenous Australians:

With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds.

We failed to ask—how would I feel if this were done to me?

In the case of the stolen generations, there is no more powerful way of connecting with this issue than imagining how we would feel if our children were taken from us, or how we would feel if, as a child, we were taken from our family and our community. It was a question that Australians had delayed asking themselves for too long, and it led, eventually, to the apology in 2008 and to our commemoration of it each year and today. It's not just about the past, of course; it's about the future because, as important as the apology was, on its own, it's not enough. What it is is a motivation for us to do better in the future, to take practical steps to redress disadvantage. There is so much unfinished business.

That's why I'm so pleased that Labor have committed to a stolen generations compensation fund for the survivors of the stolen generation from the Northern Territory and the ACT—the two Commonwealth jurisdictions—and why we've committed to $10 million in funding for the Healing Foundation to help the descendants, because we know that the trauma of removal ricochets through generations. In government, of course, we'll convene a national gathering, a summit on first nations children, because, while of course our first priority always has to be the safety of children, we cannot have another generation of Indigenous children growing up in out-of-home care away from family and country.

I believe it's important to acknowledge our mistakes but also to be positive about the steps we've taken to redress disadvantage—most of those steps, of course, led by our first peoples. Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Paul Keating's historic Redfern speech. And we hoped, also, for the next significant step on our reconciliation journey—a referendum to acknowledge that Australia's first nations have a unique place in the life and the soul and, of course, the Constitution of our country. In 2017, a gathering was held at the centre of our nation, and from it emerged the Uluru Statement from the Heart, with two powerful calls: an Indigenous voice to parliament formally enshrined in the Constitution and a makarrata commission established to work through a treaty process and truth telling.

For our part, the Labor Party have made it clear both that we support a formal Indigenous voice to parliament and that we are prepared to legislate for it. We were very disappointed by the government's very quick rejection of this idea, really without any consultation with Indigenous people, and also by the Prime Minister's dishonest effort to paint this as an undemocratic body—as somehow a third chamber of the parliament. The Prime Minister has declared that he will make Labor's support for an Indigenous voice to parliament an election issue at the next election, and it is disappointing that bipartisanship has been abandoned in this area. If the Liberal government is unwilling to act, Labor governments will, at both state and federal level. So, while I'm proud of the commitments we've made, I am also delighted to see that the New South Wales opposition leader and other Labor states have begun the process of negotiating treaties or committing to negotiating treaties. If Canada, New Zealand, the United States and many other countries can do it, surely it is not beyond us here in Australia.

While the federal government has turned its back on the message from Uluru, many Australians have heard it. We know that the time for empty platitudes and token acknowledgements has passed. We need to build on the history of activism of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities—the demands for justice, acknowledgement and a true reckoning of our history—and take the next step forward.

And I think that no doubt much of this next step will come from my electorate, as many of these moves have in the past. It was Redfern that attracted Aboriginal people from all over New South Wales to factories in the 19th century, bringing them together and creating the environment for new political movements to grow. It was in the Australian Hall in Elizabeth Street that Aboriginal Australians held their first day of mourning in 1938. It was in Redfern in 1944 that the Redfern All Blacks were formed by Aboriginal players who couldn't get a run with other clubs in the local South Sydney district junior competition. It was amongst that community—my community—that the first Aboriginal-controlled community organisations were established: the first medical service, the first legal service and the Aboriginal Housing Company. It was from Redfern that four young men drove to Canberra and set up a beach umbrella on the lawns outside what was then Parliament House—we call it Old Parliament House now—founding the Tent Embassy. It was the work of the Coloured Diggers in my electorate that led to first-nations service personnel and veterans leading last year's Anzac Day march in Canberra for the very first time.

I'm proud to represent a community that has produced generations of activists that have changed the course of history in this country, and I would add this: Just as Washington, DC, has the National Museum of the American Indian—a beautiful building that gives such a great account of the thousands of years of history of first-nations people in the United States—we should have, I think, in Redfern a cultural centre celebrating our first nations' thousands of years of history and culture. And, if not in Redfern, maybe Goat Island in Sydney Harbour, or Me-mel as it's traditionally known, to tell the story of 65,000 years of Aboriginal history and culture in this country; to tell the recent stories: the front wars and the massacres, the stories of land rights, Mabo and Wick; to tell the story of the world's oldest continuing culture, its art, dancing, music and spirituality; and to build support for a future based around our shared values: respect, self-determination, recognition in our Constitution, and makarrata.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Sydney, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, said, Paul Keating in his speech said, 'Have we asked how it would feel if this happened to us?' I have asked myself that question and I have seen the devastation in my family. My grandfather's family was completely separated and locked. His family was of the small portion—the 3,000 Lebanese people—that were here in this country at the time of World War II. My mother never got to see her grandmother. My grandfather never got to see his mother or father again. So I have empathy for our Indigenous people.

It was on 13 February 2018 that we acknowledged the 10th anniversary since the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised unreservedly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And I remember exactly where I was. I was in the Townsville mall with my work colleagues and hundreds of other people, watching on the big screen as the Prime Minister made the announcement. And there were many from my community who were descendants and some of the stolen generation people there. This was a watershed moment for our country, a step in the right direction towards achieving reconciliation and the opportunity to begin the truth-telling and the healing that will benefit our whole nation.

This was a day that we said sorry for the mistreatment, injustices and hurts that the stolen generation experienced. Many of them and their dependants still carry these scars to this very day in the form of transgenerational trauma. It was a day where all Australians embraced one another and a day where we committed to working together to improve the lives of our first-nations people. To use the language of Senator McCarthy: 'The day of the apology was the day where the nation's heart beat as one. 'Ten years ago we promised we would do better.

This is particularly important to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in my electorate of Herbert. Palm Island is also in my electorate. This is an incredibly diverse community of approximately 47 language groups, people from communities across the state of Queensland who were forcibly moved to Palm Island. Many of those men came in chains and were shackled around the neck, the hands and the feet.

The electorate of Herbert was home to the great Eddie Koiki Mabo who, 25 years ago last year, won the High Court decision to take ownership of his land, Mer Island, in the Torres Strait. It is the home of the Palm Island Seven, who went on strike 60 years ago to fight for wages and better working conditions. Their courage and fight for justice and equality resulted in them, and their families, being removed from the island, not to come back. Last year, we celebrated 50 years of the referendum, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people got the vote for the first time. I note that the people of Townsville and Toowoomba voted no in that referendum. However, I believe that we have taken action in the latter years to make amends for that vote.

Herbert was also home of the great Dr Evelyn Scott, the first Aboriginal woman to have a state funeral. She spent her life fighting for justice, equality and education for her people. Herbert is also the home of Dr Gracelyn Smallwood; Uncle Eddie Smallwood; Florence Onus; two young women I met last week, Melisa and Bernice from Blaq Diamonds; and many, many other people in our community who have given their lives fighting for justice and equality.

Words are important, but words alone do not change behaviours; nor do they create opportunities for equality and justice. In order to move on from the words of the most important apology, we needed real action, and that is where we set targets to close the gap, with the aim of improving the lives of Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal people. In 2018, the Closing the gap report found that, for the first time since 2011, three of the seven closing the gap targets are on track to be met. However, this sadly demonstrates that we are behind in four of those seven targets. This begs the question: are we succeeding in achieving our objectives to close the gap? Are our Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters getting better lives in rural and remote communities? Today, especially as I reflect on whether the lives of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been made better since the apology, I again think about the people in Townsville, in my electorate, and the people on Palm Island.

We must read the Closing the gap report in its entirety and acknowledge that we have not succeeded and we can and must do better. If the lives of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters are to improve, we would not see such things as the life expectancy for Aboriginal people at approximately 10 years less than that of non-Aboriginal people. The suicide rate for Aboriginal people is six times higher than it is for non-Aboriginal people. Countrywide rates of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are worse per capita than during the apartheid in South Africa. I see this in both the Cleveland detention centre and the Stuart prison in my electorate. Clearly, governments aren't doing anywhere near enough.

As I said earlier in this speech, I am proud to be the member for Herbert, which includes Palm Island, which is the largest discrete Aboriginal community in the country. I pay my respects to the Wulgurukaba and Bindal people of that country. It is against all odds that the people of Palm Island will celebrate their centenary this year. Palm Island has a rich history, but it is also a history that is rich in pain. However, Palm Island is a resilient community with some unique challenges. The Turnbull government is so completely out of touch and is ignoring the fact that on Palm Island we have an unemployment rate of 27 per cent. The Palm Island Shire Council, led by Mayor Alf Lacey, is doing remarkable work to address these issues. I will continue to work with them to secure recognition, equality and a better life.

The biggest threat to the Palm Island community is the fact that the Turnbull government is cutting the National Partnership on Remote Housing. Instead of working with the community to address unemployment, the Turnbull government is cutting the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing—a 10-year, $5.4 billion program which expires on 30 June this year. For Palm Island, this means job losses. Let me reiterate: the unemployment rate on Palm Island is 27 per cent. The job losses will include seven apprenticeships. During question time at the last sitting, I asked the Prime Minister why he was cutting this program. He chose not to personally answer the question but instead referred the question to the Minister for Indigenous Health, the member for Hasluck, the Hon. Ken Wyatt.

Labor are prepared to work with the government, but, rest assured, we will not wait for them when it comes to bettering the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Leader of the Opposition has announced a few of the policies that Labor will take to the next election, and I am proud to say that a Labor government will provide $10 million to programs to assist with the healing of stolen generation members and their descendants nationwide, to be administered by the Healing Foundation. These programs will support intergenerational healing, family reunion and return to country.

Labor will work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to set justice targets to ensure that we reduce the incarceration rate and improve community safety. This is particularly important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. In the first 100 days, a new Labor government will convene a national summit for first-nations children. Further to this, Labor has already started working on legislating an Indigenous voice to parliament—without government support—because bipartisanship on issues of constitutional change does not mean doing nothing. Labor will work on a voice enshrined in the Constitution, a declaration to be passed by all parliaments, Commonwealth and state, acknowledging the unique place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian history, their culture and connection. A makarrata commission to oversee a process of agreement making and truth telling will also be established.

We must take serious action to close the gap, and it needs to start immediately. The fact that only three of the seven targets set a decade ago are on track is a national shame. It is a national shame that must be addressed urgently. It certainly doesn't start with the Turnbull government cutting seven apprenticeship jobs on Palm Island. As I said, Labor will work with the government on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs, but we certainly will not wait. And I would like to finish this speech by offering my personal apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of this great nation.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In reflecting on the 10th anniversary of this parliament's apology to the stolen generations and thinking about what I might say, I was struck again—as I was when reflecting last year on the anniversary of the 1967 referendum, the 25th anniversary of the Mabo decision and indeed the anniversary of Paul Keating's Redfern speech—by how contemporary this event is. Indeed, I was actually a staffer in this building from 1995 to 2000 and so in the year 1997, when the Bringing them home report was tabled and debated in this parliament. It recommended that the parliaments of Australia acknowledge the responsibility of successive parliaments and parliamentarians for the laws, policies and practices which allowed the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their mothers and fathers. I'll just read into the Hansard a quote from the community guide, which summarised the report's conclusions in quite sharp, stark terms: 'Indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect Indigenous people's daily lives. They were an act of genocide aimed at wiping out Indigenous families, communities and cultures vital to the precious and inalienable heritage of Australia.'

The emotion of that debate—there's a lot that passes or washes over you that you either forget or wish you could forget at times, listening to debates in this place. But I cannot remember anything that stuck in my emotional memory of my five years working as a staffer in this building as much as the days when that report was debated. The building was filled with people from the stolen generations and their families, and every Labor member and senator got up and spoke and read into the Hansard some of the individual and personal stories contained in that report. To their shame, most of the now government did not adopt that spirit.

But we recaptured, I think it's fair to say, a brief moment of that kind of emotion at the breakfast with former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a couple of weeks ago to commemorate the 10th anniversary. Now, I'm not a particularly emotional person—let's be honest; I know most of the people in this chamber—but who could not be moved?

I do admit to uncharacteristically shedding a little tear at a couple of moments during the breakfast; not just at the stories of dispossession that were told and retold and should not be forgotten, but most of all, actually, at the faces—watching the faces that were up on the screen of the people who were in the chamber, in this parliament, out on the lawns and around the nation watching then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver that historic apology. The emotion was real, it was palpable, and you can see it still and through the ages. Anyone watching that video footage of the reaction can see just how much this apology meant to people and how real the impact was.

Despite that, it wasn't until 2007, four elections later, that an Australian Prime Minister finally stood up in the House of Representatives and followed through on the recommendation to say sorry. John Howard, for his eternal shame, was too small a man to utter that simple word, 'sorry'. He skirted around it with semantics and expressions of regret, but he could not say sorry. Kevin Rudd was brave enough, courageous enough and decent enough to do so. This year we could have been and should have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the apology and not the 10th. We could have and should have had an extra 10 years of serious policy from this parliament to try to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on things like life expectancy, educational attainment, employment, health outcomes and so on. The contemporaneity of this historic event is a reminder that progress is never won easily and is always resisted by some. To his eternal shame, the member for Dickson couldn't bring himself to even turn up and be in the chamber for that historic moment—a stain on his record.

There is a political truth that underlies this difficulty. It's much harder to unite, to build a case and to build momentum for positive change. As Kevin Rudd so aptly reminded us at the breakfast, all of the big moments in the history of Aboriginal rights in modern Australia were hard until they were done. 1967, Gough's land rights, Keating's Mabo—all of them were hard until they were done. It is far easier, as some of those opposite know well, to trade on the base human emotion of fear—to make it your political business model and to leverage fear and difference to divide and conquer. In this way, the member for Warringah and the member for Dickson are the true heirs of John Howard, who was a master of the dark arts. It was only 10 years ago that the Australian Prime Minister stood up in this parliament and apologised to the First Australians who were ripped from their families and had their childhoods destroyed by policies enacted by people who sat in this chamber and in parliaments around the nation. Some may have meant well, but still it was wrong. Eventually, finally, our nation's leader said sorry.

Between 1910 and 1970, over 50,000 children were stolen from their families, often violently, due to the deliberate policies of Australian parliaments. This was no accident. Prime Minister Rudd made this point in his speech 10 years ago when he said:

… the laws that our parliaments enacted made the stolen generations possible. We, the parliaments of the nation, are ultimately responsible, not those who gave effect to our laws. The problem lay with the laws themselves.

It's a sobering reminder of the work that we do here and the responsibility that comes with the parliament's power to ensure that the laws we pass and the laws we propose are just laws. It's important also to note that this affected all Indigenous Australians and not just those who were stolen and had their lives disrupted. As Aboriginal people told the parliament through the Bringing them home report, the fear and the trauma engendered across a whole nation—the Aboriginal nation; the whole people—was that your kids may be next or your neighbour's kids may be next.

The anniversary of the apology is also an important reminder that without action, words—especially apologies—risk becoming hollow. Prime Minister Rudd knew this, to his credit, and that's why he instituted the Closing the gap report, which forced the reality of Aboriginal disadvantage into the light, if you like, so that his own government and all of the governments that came after could not claim ignorance for the problem. In my former life as a public servant, I had the enormous privilege for close to year of being responsible for the Victorian government's Aboriginal policy under a former coalition Liberal government. I was looking at the cross-government work to implement the Closing the gap targets, and responsible for the reporting, preparation and finalisation of the next framework. In Victoria, I'm pleased to say, it has been a broadly bipartisan approach. The member for Grayndler outlined well the progress which has been made. I think I'd summarise it as patchy, not enough and insufficient, but there has been modest progress in three areas because of Closing the gap.

There is a glass half full glass half empty view you can take of these things—both are important lenses in this case. We do need to acknowledge the progress but we need also to acknowledge, as Prime Minister Rudd said, these were ambitious targets. They were not meant to be easy to achieve. We have a responsibility to the Aboriginal citizens of Australia, as custodians on this continent of the world's oldest continuous living culture, to do more and to not abandon those targets. That's why Labor to a team, every member, every senator, every woman and every man, have committed to establishing a stolen generations compensation scheme, to ensure that saying sorry is actually met with determined action.

Of course, this is too late for some people. I was in despair, I suppose, to read media reports of quite cynical, disgraceful responses to our pretty modest announcement of the numbers in the scheme—$75,000 to around 150 people in the ACT and the Northern Territory not covered by the state schemes. People spoke about 'the Aboriginal industry' or 'people are only doing it for the money'. That stuff should be called out by any member of parliament and by any leader of the community. We'll also provide $10 million to programs that assist with the healing of stolen generation members and their families. These programs will support intergenerational healing, family reunion and return to country, as well as provide support for some of the older members of the stolen generation.

The apology is a reminder that words and symbolism do matter when dealing with grief and trauma. Put simply, if you hurt someone you say sorry. So acknowledgement of the truth of our nation's history, which is far too often uncomfortable and distressing, and ensuring that apologies were spoken and people were heard, and that a very real important part of reconciling our history and ensuring we're able to move forward together is important to mark, but there is much more to be done. I was talking about the apology to someone who has known the Prime Minister for many years and used to be a personal friend. They said that there are a lot of good things about the Prime Minister. I asked what his problem with this issue was. They said, 'Like all humans, we all have some blind spots and we all have some gaps, but,'—in their words—'the Prime Minister has always had a gap on the blackfella issues. He doesn't feel it in his heart.' I would urge his government to reconsider the Uluru Statement from the Heart.