Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4490 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

It is not the role just of governments to promote and support Aboriginal reconciliation, however. Individuals also play an important role. As Patrick Dodson says:

Reconciliation can mean different things. It might be as simple as a handshake with your Aboriginal neighbour, or, more broadly, better relations between indigenous communities and other Australians in all the places we share across this land.

There are important principles to be understood in considering the process of Aboriginal reconciliation. As the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation says, we have to understand the importance of land and sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. We need to work constantly to improve relationships, to value cultures, to share history, and to recognise that, in sharing history, our understandings and our experiences of that history have been different.

For some of us, that history has been a history of progress, and for others, at times that history has been a history of suffering and disadvantage. We have to consciously and deliberately address disadvantage if we are to advance the process of reconciliation. A specific way we have to do that is our continuing attention to the issue of addressing custody levels in our gaols. That is just one example of how we can advance the process of addressing disadvantage. We have to find ways of giving Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders greater control over their destinies. ATSIC obviously plays a part in this at a Federal level, but there are things we have to consider at our own level.

Ultimately, we need to consider some formal ways of acknowledging the reconciliation process. Mrs Carnell has adopted Mr Dodson's words in her motion, and clauses 3 and 4 in particular set out some ways in which we can move forward. They talk about setting benchmarks by which to measure the performance of governments in honouring their commitment to reconciliation and they welcome the intentions embodied in the Australian Reconciliation Convention to be held next year, which, among other things, will consider the benefit to the community as a whole of a document or documents of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community. These are important issues that have been identified by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and I think it is a welcome sign that we in this Assembly can affirm the importance of those things and commit ourselves to them in the way set out in the motion.

The process of Aboriginal reconciliation has been going on for some time. It goes back to the referendum in 1967, to the handing over of the first land by the Federal Government to the Gurindgi people in 1975, to the decision to establish the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation with bipartisan, unanimous support in the House of Representatives, and, more recently, to the passing of the Native Title Act in 1993 and other actions since then. This Assembly has always had a proud role in this matter. In 1994 the Chief Minister's predecessor, Rosemary Follett, moved a motion committing the ACT Assembly to a process of constructive reconciliation between indigenous and wider Australian communities. In passing that motion, this Legislative Assembly became the first State or Territory parliament to pass a motion supporting the reconciliation process. As I understand it, that motion too was passed unanimously.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .