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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1612 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The third issue is knowledge about indigenous culture and recognising it as a valued part of the Australian heritage. The fourth key issue is knowledge about our history; sharing our history; a sense of shared ownership; the fact that Aboriginal peoples have lived in Australia for more than 2,000 generations; knowledge that there was deliberate avoidance by historians of racial violence; avoidance of the role government played in dispossession of Aboriginal peoples and removal of children, relocation to reserves and missions; knowledge that this happened. Another major omission has been the role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have played in the defence of Australia.

The fifth issue is knowledge about the degree of disadvantage, debunking myths. Ms Hanson, at the moment, has brought us to a time when we indeed do have to debunk myths because she is promoting them. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that major underlying factors of disadvantage were the legacy of history. This is a living legacy. The sixth key issue is responding to the custody levels, knowledge about what is happening with indigenous people and the law. The seventh key issue is about what sort of document we should have. We need to understand and have knowledge about what would actually address these issues, in the view of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Is it a treaty? Is it an apology? The eighth key issue is about controlling destiny and knowledge that the Aboriginal people have not had any control of their destiny. There has been external control, management and direction and manipulation, consistently. These are the issues of now. The process of reconciliation involves recognition of what has happened and is happening now.

We are still removing children from the homes of their families. We have an inquiry here now in this Assembly into services for children at risk, and one of the points that we are looking at specifically is services for people who come from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultures. We see from the available statistics in the recent report on mental health issues for Aboriginal people that 8.5 per cent of the local indigenous community used ACT mental health services during 1995, compared to approximately 1.5 per cent of the wider community. They are six times more likely to access ACT mental health services than non-Aboriginals. This is a good report and it shows a commitment from this Government to acknowledge these sorts of issues. It is hardly surprising that Aboriginal people are accessing these services more than the wider community. They basically have had their hearts ripped out through the dispossession and removal of their children. I cannot see, as a parent, how there could be anything more painful and any greater abuse than to have a child taken.

Mrs Carnell was concerned that an apology might be hollow; but we do believe that an apology, if deeply felt, is significant in the healing process. However, a deeply felt apology would be followed naturally by efforts to address the problems which have resulted. Mrs Carnell has made statements about addressing land issues, and there are papers and reports such as the mental health paper. So there are obvious efforts coming from this particular Government to address some of the issues. However, we still do not have culturally appropriate services across the health field for Aboriginal people. We do not have culturally appropriate services, in fact, in any area. Reconciliation is about all levels of community reconciling. At the level of government there are obviously policy decisions which will show the sincerity of the reconciliation.

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