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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4605 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Ms Tucker referred to the debate which is occurring in the Senate on amendments to the Native Title Act. At a time in our history when the level of divisiveness and disagreement over the issue of reconciliation and native title is perhaps at its highest for many years - probably several decades - I think that all of us in this community have an obligation to demonstrate our commitment to the notion of a fair and just society. You cannot have a fair and just society without reconciliation with the original occupiers and custodians of this land. The signal we send when we place the flags of the indigenous peoples of our country in this chamber is an important message. It is a message that we reaffirm the importance of reconciliation. I am sure that all members in this place support that wholeheartedly.

Mr Speaker, there has been some debate, most notably within the Administration and Procedure Committee, about whether or not this should occur. It certainly seems to me that the most appropriate way of handling this issue is the way Ms Tucker has done it this afternoon, that is, through a motion directly from the floor, rather than through the forum of the Administration and Procedure Committee. Ultimately, the debate was going to need to occur here anyway.

The flags we are talking about placing in the chamber today are not flags of one little group in our community or one particular organisation. They are flags that represent the original custodians of our country. They are national flags. They are flags that many people, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, have a very strong affinity with. Unlike the national flag, which has elements of a different cultural past in it, or even our own ACT flag, the flags of both the Aboriginal people and the Torres Strait Islander people are uniquely Australian. I think it is very appropriate that we have that element of unique Australianness in those flags displayed here in this chamber. Mr Speaker, this is an important step. It is symbolic, but symbols are very important when it comes to the issue of reconciliation. Labor is very happy and very proud to support this motion from Ms Tucker.

MR MOORE (4.32): Mr Speaker, in rising to support Ms Tucker's motion, I have to say that at this stage we have heard only one side of the debate. I do not think it is a one-sided debate. Ms Tucker first raised this issue in 1995 in the Administration and Procedure Committee. At that time, although I did not oppose what she was saying, I was certainly very reluctant. I think that is a reasonable description. I had quite a number of discussions with Ms Tucker on the issue and raised certain concerns. My concerns were primarily about how having additional flags in the chamber would be perceived in the community, at what point we should stop, what process we would need to ensure that we had the agreement of people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent and whether it would be offensive to Ngunnawal people, for example, to have a Torres Strait Islander flag in here.

I see in the chamber now the ACT flag with the stars and the ACT coat of arms, which strikes me as a very British sort of coat of arms. Perhaps more interestingly, when I look at the Australian flag I see incorporated in it the British flag, and incorporated within the British flag are the crosses of St Andrew, St George and St Patrick. We have a series of flags and a series of cultural backgrounds already represented in the Australian flag

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