Page 3578 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Indeed, the local community is eagerly awaiting the Government's action; but it has not seen much yet. It does mean that many, although not all, of the problems that the recommendations addressed perhaps weigh less heavily on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Canberra than on those living further from urban environments or in less ameliorated urban circumstances. When the Government tells us that a recommendation has no application in the Territory or is a Commonwealth matter, what it is really saying is that a few more trees have come down for the sake of telling us nothing. Leaving out the inapplicable will save trees and may even get the report out more quickly.
Group three - what the Territory has done badly - is, I am relieved to say, relatively small. The most significantly badly done matter, however, is of some importance, and it centres on increasing the awareness of law enforcement, judicial and custodial officers about Aboriginal society, customs and traditions. Several recommendations touch on that need, and it is fundamental to dealing with the root cause of what the recommendations are designed to correct. Throughout the report there are references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community based bodies consulting with government agencies and becoming actively involved in the enforcement, judicial, custodial, health education and employment processes; in other words, we latecomers involving Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the processes that we have established under our laws and our social structures.
What has the Government done about showing people at the sharp end of the matter - the police, the courts and custodial staff - that they are dealing with people whose customs, societal structures and family values have evolved from different spiritual and material values, different mind-sets, different traditions and different origins, in no way wrong, just different, and needing different and respectful handling? What the Government has done, or at best has not prevented the Australian Federal Police from doing, is to fail to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members with a role in explaining their society, customs and traditions to the groups with which they are most likely to come into antagonistic confrontation. I call this a major disempowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the ACT, totally at odds with the spirit and intention of the royal commission's recommendation. It is absurd - in fact, ridiculous - to give responsibility to the same institutional groups who were most closely involved with the genesis of the royal commission for providing very complex cross-cultural awareness instruction to their members among whom the risk of prejudice may well still persist.
There is a second sort of risk in this, Madam Speaker. Members receiving awareness training from colleagues may well think, "Well, we are listening to these people only because the royal commission has said that we must". Hearing it from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander will carry greater conviction, and the information will be more accurate and it will offer the prospect of better informed answers to questions. It would, Madam Speaker, in a sense, be as if I turned up at the airfield tomorrow for a flying lesson to find the Chief Minister there and telling me that she is to be my flying instructor. God help me! Only a highly-qualified instructor pilot can teach me how to fly an aeroplane, and only an Aboriginal can convey cultural awareness of Aboriginal society,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .