Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to make a contribution to this debate and talk about the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program. This is a very emotive issue and I have been in the chamber to listen to the contributions of all senators, except that of Senator Scullion, who led the debate and whose speech I listened to in my office. Some of the contributions were very informative; some were heartfelt; some were absolutely shocking. Senator Scullion was on a rant and in typical Senator Scullion style he thinks he has to yell at people. Apparently, the more emotive he becomes the more that Australians might think he knows what he is talking about on this issue.

I would like to touch on a few of the contributions from other speakers because I have a very vested interest in this topic. It is not that I am a senator from the Territory—I am not—I am a senator from Western Australia who has spent a lot of time in Indigenous communities, both in my role as a truck driver delivering teachers, police, furniture to a new school or whatever it might have been and in my role as a duty senator running throughout the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne and Western Desert lands. There is nothing sadder than to see the plight of Indigenous Australians in the squalor that they do live in. It is absolutely heartbreaking. It is disgraceful, it is embarrassing and it is nothing short of disgusting.

In her contribution, Senator Payne mentioned the apology to the stolen generations. I do not think for one minute that she was anything short of sincere in her appreciation of that apology. Senator Scullion also mentioned the apology and I heard him do so. But I was in this chamber and had the misfortune to listen to some of the bile that came out of opposition parliamentarians, mainly Western Australian senators and members, when the parliament debated the making of that apology. I remember standing in the Member’s Hall for the very first welcome to country to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. It was a very moving experience, but for some reason I looked up and saw the member for O’Connor, Mr Tuckey—I think the opposition refer to him as Uncle Arthur or whatever it may be. There was Mr Tuckey, who proudly goes by the name of ‘Ironbar’. Why? Because he proudly belted a few Aboriginals in his hotel in Carnarvon, as I think the legend goes, with an iron bar. It is pretty easy being tough with an iron bar in your hand, mate. Anyone is tough with an iron bar in their hand. But there was the member for O’Connor, with a face on him like a lemon, perched up on the first floor with his arms folded in absolute disgust that we were not only making the apology to the stolen generation but having a welcome to country, as we should have a welcome to country every time we stand on this land.

Senator Scullion got one thing right. He said that everywhere you go you hear about the apology to the stolen generation—and it is true. I have had the good fortune to be a part of some overseas delegations since the apology. It does not matter if we are in Europe or in Asia, the first thing that is usually put to us as visiting Australian politicians is how proud those other nations are that Prime Minister Rudd made that apology. Through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, I see a smirk on Senator Bernardi’s face—a smirk that looks like a split watermelon.