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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4606 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

and in the British flag. To say that we should have the origins of Australia and the origins of British heritage displayed in a flag in our chamber but not the origins of our indigenous society is an interesting question. I do not want to be misconstrued on this, Mr Speaker. I do not think this is a simple issue.

The thing that finally made me decide that I would support Ms Tucker and say to her, "Yes, go ahead, because as far as I am concerned you have the numbers" was the debate that is currently going on in the Federal Parliament. It is a debate about reconciliation and how far we are prepared to move and to what extent our community is prepared to recognise part of our heritage which I consider very valuable. One small step we can take to show that we value that heritage is to fly these flags in this chamber along with the Australian flag, which symbolises our British history. I think it is a small step.

Ms Tucker, in her speech, effectively called on members to take a role in reconciliation, and that was reiterated by Mr Corbell. Because of that factor I finally decided to support the motion. It is appropriate. We have an opportunity now - a small window of time, I would argue - to say that we can look after a minority in our society, that this particular group is incredibly important to Australia and that we need to go forward in partnership with them. There is not a much better way that we as an Assembly can recognise that partnership than by ensuring that this group are symbolically represented in our chamber and symbolically given a place of pride in our community.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.37): Mr Speaker, I will be supporting this motion. I fully agree with Mr Moore's comments that this is not a simple issue, for a number of reasons, some of which Mr Moore has spoken about already. These sorts of actions can be seen as tokenistic. I hope that that is not the case here. I know that Ms Tucker, Mr Moore and others do not see it that way at all, and nor do I; but I can understand how some people may think that that is the case. The way to show that it is not tokenistic is to continue down the path that we have already taken in the ACT and ensure that these sorts of issues do not become divisive, as is happening federally. Reconciliation means compromise from all parties to come up with a position that recognises the many different people in our community, including our indigenous people.

I hope that putting these flags up in the Assembly shows our indigenous community that this Assembly does respect their rights and their aspirations and that we are not taking the path that is being taken elsewhere, with everyone going off to their corner and taking a "punch-up at dawn" type of approach. I am happy to support the motion, but I think that we really must maintain the approach of achieving a regional agreement or a local agreement, as I think we will probably call it now, with regard to land rights, to a cultural centre for the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who live in the ACT and surrounding areas and to jobs opportunities for young indigenous people. These are the sorts of things that really matter, but I think that the flags could be seen as an indication that we really mean it when we say that indigenous people should and must have equal rights in our society, must have their culture respected by all Australians and should and must have appropriate land rights.

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