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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1026 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

We have to take responsibility for some of the needs in relation to water, housing, health and education. We forced many changes onto Aboriginal people. This is not 200 years ago. We are talking about people who are still working. This was part of the policy at the time. We have to accept that reality. But we decided that Aboriginal people should not continue the hunting and gathering lifestyle which they had enjoyed for thousands upon thousands of years; that they should all be forced to live within a community in a fixed place. A number of programs brought that about. But at the same time that we said people should live within communities, we did not provide them with the means to do that. In other words, we did not provide good infrastructure. We did not provide water, decent housing, access to education or access to health services. They were almost like a secondary need that came along. These are issues that have to face the community now. We are not talking about some long gone time. We are not suggesting to people that they carry the weight of what Captain Arthur Phillip did. We are talking about government programs, the outcomes of which are still within our community.

I just make mention of the inquiry into the stolen children, the results of which have not yet been published. I am sure, along with a number of people here, that we know people who were taken from their parents or who were parents themselves. The community lost these children because it was felt that it was better for them to be brought up in another way. The lack of respect and the lack of regard for that culture at that time is a great shame for our community. This is something we have to continue to address and not let the poisonous words of Pauline Hanson affect our humanity and our compassion in this area. We have to look at the things that continue to happen within our community.

Let us consider some of the things that Pauline Hanson is doing. She wants a divided community. She talks about One Nation, but all her actions and all her words make a lie of this claim. Pauline Hanson is working hard to bring divisions and discord into our society. She is not the only one who has been part of this process. She might have picked up the race can, be pushing it and be giving it a good kick. Already, in the last 13 months, we have seen the manipulation of a language, the opportunities for targeting different groups within our community and setting them aside and saying they are the enemy.

Consider the unemployed, and how they are treated and how they are spoken about now. They are no longer accepted within our community as the most disadvantaged. They are put down as lazy and devious, and failing to pick up the opportunities - opportunities that just do not exist. The Commonwealth Liberal Government, along with John Howard, its leader, has been happy to go along and encourage the divisions within our community. What has happened with that situation is that the scene has been set for Pauline Hanson and her like to come in and to push the racist views that are there. We have seen the situation where John Howard has not shown leadership to answer Pauline Hanson, to bring the community together to work for the good of the community as a whole.

Mr Moore: Even though he went to the election saying he would govern for everyone.

MS REILLY: Yes. It is interesting to see the manipulation there. The divisions were already apparent before the Liberals took on government in March last year. This has continued and it is not surprising that Pauline Hanson has reached the

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