Page 1411 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 6 May 2008
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think I used the words, and Dr Foskey has used those same words today. That is the concern I have, that we are trying to orchestrate something for a community that has the answers. We as white people do not know the lore. We do not understand the culture. We do not understand the significance of a lot of their tradition and their history. I, for one, am very keen to continue to learn more about that.
We do need a bipartisan approach. We all need to be in agreement. I will support the legislation. Back in 2006 I did raise concerns. I said, “I am a little bit concerned that we may never see the setting up of this actual you-beaut body for the Aboriginal people of this community before this side of this year. I mean, when is it to be?” I said that on 2 May 2006. Here we are today, almost to the day, two years on, and only now are we debating this issue, which the Chief Minister has always paraded before the community as a high priority. I think it is a high priority. I hope and hope beyond hope that we do not ever use the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agenda, if you like, for political gain. Sometimes we have seen that, and that disappoints me greatly.
The Aboriginal community deserve true community representation. What do I mean by that? I do not mean the high fliers out there, those people that we all know in the community. I want to see people that we do not know. I do not want to see well-known people. I want to know what grassroots Aboriginal people are feeling—those people who do not get a chance to speak on national or local media. I want to be able to make sure that when we hear from this elected body we are hearing the true feeling at the grassroots level.
The true independence of this body is critical to its success and its survival, and I think it is worth repeating what Warren Mundine has said about this. He was very clear. And I would have to take Dr Foskey up on her comments about the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Seselja, talking about ATSIC. In fact, Mr Stanhope did speak at great length about the demise of ATSIC—and thank God that ATSIC has gone. Maybe now, after the billions and millions of dollars that have gone into ATSIC over successive federal governments, that funding can be better used at the point of need that Dr Foskey was talking about and the money can be delivered into the communities, rather than people being given cars and first-class travel and so forth, which is an abuse of what was intended to reach some of our remote Indigenous communities.
I think it is a good thing that ATSIC is gone. Here in the ACT we do not want to see a replica of that in any way. I am sure that is not what the Chief Minister would want to see either. So I will support the legislation. I want to see true representation. There are a small number of people eligible to vote—Dr Foskey raised this too—but we must make sure that as many people as can vote are able to vote that have their say. This is the opportunity for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to stand strong.
I was just looking at Ms Porter then and remembering the time we had in New Zealand. When we visited the parliament we saw the strong representation of the Indigenous community. How proud I would be if we could see something like that in the ACT. Instead of always hearing the heartbreaking stories that we hear about downtrodden Aboriginal people, we could see them in their true light—we could hear their music and see their art.
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