Page 77 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 December 2004
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Environment and Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs): I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement concerning my portfolio responsibilities.
Leave granted.
MR STANHOPE: When the people of Canberra went to the election on 16 October, they gave my government a very strong and a very clear endorsement. It was an endorsement the like of which has not been seen in the history of self-government in the ACT. As a result, I now have the privilege of leading the territory’s first majority government, and it is a privilege.
My colleagues and I take this endorsement very seriously. I am proud of my government’s achievements over the past three years. Those achievements are well known and I do not intend to rehash them here today. I would much rather focus on the future.
The next four years will be an important time for our city and our community. Together, we have agreed upon a vision: the Australian Capital Territory will be a place which encapsulates the very best in Australian creativity, the very best in community living, and the very best in sustainable development. We have already begun turning that vision into a reality; but, of course, there is much more work to be done. The next four years will be an exciting time for Canberra.
As I outline the major work that will be taking place in my portfolios, I will begin with indigenous affairs, a portfolio that is particularly important to me personally. Twelve years ago, almost to the day, Paul Keating eloquently put reconciliation on the national agenda while addressing a rally in Redfern Park. It was a profoundly touching speech that started a movement that had its zenith when a quarter of a million Australians walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation. Thousands more marched in other cities, including Canberra.
The lack of vision of Paul Keating’s successor has now brought that movement to a grinding halt. One day not long from now, history will judge our counterparts across the lake poorly for their lack of compassion. They will also be judged poorly for abolishing ATSIC without creating a new and democratically elected body in its place. Very few would deny that ATSIC was flawed. But the end of self-determination for indigenous Australians is a monumental setback for this country. It has set us back not years but decades.
I am determined, however, that here in the ACT we will maintain an unremitting effort to address the results of the last two centuries of indigenous disadvantage and dispossession. We will work to narrow the gap in health and education—in the chances we have in life—between indigenous and non-indigenous Canberrans. We will address the overrepresentation of indigenous people in the justice system and their under-representation in the workplace. We will get on with the job of implementing the $7.7 million in new initiatives that we have funded in this year’s budget and address the ongoing issues that leave indigenous people among the most disadvantaged members of our community.
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