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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1703 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
With regard to the stolen generation, I agree with my federal colleague Mr Daryl Melham, who recently said:
National shame, as well as national pride, can and should exist in relation to past acts and omissions, at least when done or made in the name of the community or with authority of government. Where there is no room for national pride or national shame about the past, there can be no national soul.
Australians do feel ashamed about the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families in the same way they feel pride when they think of the Anzacs. The Commonwealth government's attempt to deny the past merely exacerbates that feeling of national shame, and the offending submission should be rejected to prevent further damage to national pride.
In terms of both mandatory sentencing and the stolen generation, will we choose to learn from history or will we perpetuate the tradition of societal injustice? Will history judge us as the good people who did nothing, allowing evil to triumph, or will we learn the lessons of history and face up to our responsibilities with regard to government policies, both past and present?
The Commonwealth government must commit itself to redressing injustices, both past and present, faced by indigenous Australians if true reconciliation is ever to be achieved. Part of that process must involve the adoption of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's Declaration Towards Reconciliation. In September 1991 the Commonwealth parliament passed legislation that established the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. The legislation was passed unanimously in both houses. The council's declaration towards reconciliation has been developed in close consultation with the Australian people over almost a decade. Clearly, the council has a mandate to determine the final wording of the declaration, and it is not up to any prevailing government of the day to intervene to adapt the wording to suit its own political objectives. The process of reconciliation belongs to the Australian people.
I would ask the members of this Assembly to reflect on how they would like to be judged by history as they consider the three issues contained within this motion: mandatory sentencing, denial of the stolen generation, and the Howard government's rejection of the Declaration Towards Reconciliation. Following the release of the draft document for reconciliation last year, the Chief Minister moved a motion congratulating the council on its initiative. (Extension of time granted.) In speaking to the motion, the Chief Minister made the following statement:
... this Assembly has been more than happy, and perceived it appropriate, to say sorry ... and to do everything we can as an Assembly to ensure that the reconciliation process does continue and is a grass roots indication of what every Australian believes, and that is that indigenous people in this country are a very integral part of the future of this nation, just as they were an integral part of the past.
On the coming weekend the Chief Minister, representing the people of the ACT, will stand with all the other state and territory leaders at Bennelong Point, and together they will accept the Declaration Towards Reconciliation on behalf of all Australians.
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