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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1606 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

One of the greatest causes of hurt to Aboriginal people and others is the ignorance of others in the community about what has happened to them. If we are to avoid repeating that hurt, we have to meet the challenge of not being ignorant. I believe that that is an important element that we must embrace if we are to be sincere about meeting the call for reparation in the report. Mr Speaker, it needs to be remembered that this is not just something that happened in the past. The people who were the subject of these policies are still alive and are still active members of the community. They are people that you will meet if you bother to mix with Aboriginal people. We have to be conscious of the ongoing impacts of those policies if we are to be sincere about the reparation process.

There is one other thing in this motion which I want to touch on briefly, and that is the reference to the regional agreement with the Ngun(n)awal people in relation to the native title claim in the ACT. The Government is right to say that sensitive and sympathetic treatment of native title claims is an important step in the reconciliation process. Acknowledgment of Aboriginal people's attachment to land and past associations with land is an important element in the ACT. It is also important, Mr Speaker, that that be done in a way which brings communities together, which acknowledges the range of opinion within Aboriginal communities and which involves all elements of the Aboriginal community if it is to be a positive and reconciling thing. If the pursuit of a regional agreement on a native title claim has the effect of dividing the community it will defeat its purpose of reconciliation. So, Mr Speaker, let us all be conscious of the need to progress these matters in a way which is unifying and is reconciling.

There is a tradition in this place, as well as in others, of not using Aboriginal issues as a way of scoring political points. It is important that we deal with Aboriginal issues, indigenous issues, in a way which is, indeed, unifying, affirming and reconciling, not in a way which satisfies public consumption but does not actually enhance our reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples. Mr Speaker, I think that we have to embrace the spirit of this motion. We have to embrace the calls in the Bringing them home report to confront our past, and to make appropriate reparation for it as part of the process of moving together in a positive way in the future. I commend the motion and I commend all the recommendations of the report, Mr Speaker.

MS HORODNY (11.00): There are those in our community who, without thinking and without compassion, will say, "Why should we apologise? This happened a long time ago. It is not something I was a part of. It is the past. Let us put it behind us". How can we put it behind us, I say, when so many people are still so badly affected by those past policies and practices? These policies and practices were in place for over 80 years and happened in every State and Territory in Australia. In New South Wales and Victoria, laws sanctioning the separation of Aboriginal people were in place as early as 1885, and in some States they were not formally abolished until the early 1970s. The effects of this abhorrent practice are still impacting on Aboriginal people today. Some 43 of the 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody were of people who were separated from their families as children.

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