Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today, we mark the beginning of Reconciliation Week, an opportunity to reflect on our shared history. Why is it important that all Australians come together and play a part in our journey towards a more unified Australia and deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

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

I thank the member for Lingiari for her question. More importantly, I thank her for the grace that she shows in a long career representing Australians of all backgrounds but particularly representing the largest Indigenous communities in remote Australia. She brings a great deal of dignity to that role. Of course, all Australians have a great privilege of sharing this island continent of ours with the oldest continuous culture on earth, and the beginning of Reconciliation Week is an important time to note that. We come together with First Nations Australians and recommit our efforts to shaping a future that is better for them and therefore better for our nation.

Last Friday, I joined with thousands of Australians taking part in the Long Walk to the MCG, together with Michael Long. It was indeed an uplifting experience. What struck me was the sense of hope and optimism and pride shared between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians walking together and then gathering almost 90,000 people at the 'G for the match between Richmond and Essendon and the dancing, the singing, Dan Sultan and all of the performances. It was a time of enormous respect granted as well.

Today, I welcome to our nation's parliament Travis Lovett, who walked from Melbourne to call upon Australians to walk together towards reconciliation. This week comes after the devastating death of Kumanjayi Little Baby and the national outpouring of grief that has followed an adored and loved little girl of just five years old who should have had her whole life ahead of her. Last week, I travelled to Alice Springs with the member for Lingiari and the Minister for Indigenous Australians. I joined with the family of that beautiful young soul—her mum, her grandfather, her grandmother. We visited the town camp and the memorial which is there, and we spoke with all of the community leaders who had played a role and those who had searched for Little Baby—the police, the emergency services, the council workers, the SES, the land council, the community organisations, Tangentyere and others as well—to say thank you on behalf of the nation for the way that they responded to an extraordinary tragedy. Their grief is profound, and their hearts are shattered.

As Prime Minister of Australia, I conveyed the sentiment of the nation, reiterating our commitment to their dignity and our respect for their grief. One of the things that struck me there was, in spite of their feeling and that sense of loss, their generosity of spirit. I do want to say as well that they appreciated the visit by the member for Berowra in the week beforehand as well. I want to say to the member for Berowra: they really appreciated you standing with the community there as well.

As Prime Minister of Australia, I can say it is just a horrific thought that they've gone through that. But they were generous, they gave me a skin name—Jangala—and they engaged in such a positive way. They're determined to go forward, to channel that grief into a positive future. This week, Reconciliation Week, is a chance for all of us to recommit to doing better. As a nation, we have to do better. All sides of politics have failed to do as well as we should have since Federation started and, indeed, before. So let us use this week—it is a public holiday on Monday here in Canberra for Reconciliation Day. That's an opportunity for us to recommit to doing better in the future.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I associate the opposition with the Prime Minister's sentiments about the importance of reconciliation to our country. All of us are committed to reconciliation with our First Nations people. From time to time, we may disagree on the best path to get there, but all of us are committed to seeing better outcomes for Indigenous people. I was pleased, as the Prime Minister has acknowledged, to go to the vigil for Kumanjayi Little Baby, to see the local member, the member for Lingiari, there, to go there with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the other place, from our side, and to meet members of the family. We've all got to do better. We've all got to take more responsibility. We've all got to improve outcomes.