8 0 1 ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE RON P. J. KEATING MP
RECEPTION TO COMMEMORATE THE 25TH ANNIVERSARiY OF THE
REFERENDUM, 27 KAY 1992
Ladies and gentlemen
We are here to commemorate a highly significant event in
Australia's history.
In 1967 the Commonwealth Government asked the Australian
people to give it the power to legislate for Aboriginals
and Torres StraitIslanders,. and the Austral 1an peopl-e--
reso-uEdfingly answered " Yes".
Australians do not readily give assent to _ referendum
proposals. Of forty two questions which have been put to referendum
since Federation, only 8 have been passed.'
In 1967, asked if Aborigines should at last be counted in
the census, if they should be counted equally with all
other Australians, and if the Australian Government
should have responsibility for legislation relating to
their affairs, more than 90 per cent of Australians
answered " Yes".
It was en unprecedented result and one wh4ich will
probably never be bettered.
It is a result well worth commemorating today.
But, as with many commemorations, our celebrations are
tinged with regret.
The truth Is we have not succeeded in meeting the
challenge which the triumphant referendum result required
us to meet.
The inequality, the injustice and the racism remain.
The memory and the consequences of injustices done in the
past continue.
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We cannot erase these facts.-nor should we seek to.
We should remember them. All Australians should know'the
facts of conquest, of dispossession, of the brutal
treatment and equally inhuman neglect, and they should
recognise the attitudes and motives which inspired them.
As I said, we cannot erase the past but it is our long
overdue duty to erase the attitudes which informed it.
If we wish to lay claim to being truly 8 decent,
civilised advanced nation, the arrogance, intolerance,
ignorance and complacency which for so long characterised
the attitudes and policies of White Australia has to go,
Today I think we white Australians should consider how
much it will do for our own self-esteem if we can
eradicate the prejudice and injustice.
We have made some progress in the last twenty years.
Young Australians are better informed than anly previous
generation about the extraordinary pre-European history
and culture of their country.
Through the education system, but equally through the
achievements of Aboriginal artists, writers and
musicians, we have learned to value the culture and
history of Aboriginal Australia as never before.
We now know much more about what happened on the pastoral
frontier, on the missions and reserves, and in the towns
and cities of Australia.
We know about the crimes committed in the name of white
supremacy, enlightenment and progress, including perhaps
the most shameful of all the removal of Aboriginal
children from their families.
But I think we are also learning to recognise the
contributions Aboriginal Australians have made to this
country and to the contemporary Australian identity.
The Aboriginal story, including the heroes of their
resistance to the European invasion, has become very much
a part of the Australian story as Europeans understand
it. in the past the profound Aboriginal knowledge of this
land was essential to the survival of European
Australians on the frontier.
Today through their art, music and writing, they deepen
our understanding of the Australian environment and point
the way toward a proper relationship with it.
They deepen our understanding of what it is to be
Australian. tj 14W VV_ I Q4.1
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Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have served this
nation in peace and war,
In sport and other fields they number among our legends.
In the 1990s there can be no excuse for failing to
recognise either our debts or our duties to Aboriginals
and Torres Strait Islanders.
In this decade all Australians should come to recognise
that there is no true loyalty or affection for this
country which does not include them.
in all this, it becomes very clear that those people who
fought for more than a decade to see the 1967 Referendum
proposed arnd passed were doing all Australians a great
service.
Some of those people from the Federal Council for the
Advancement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders
are with us tonight and I think we should acknowledge
their achievement.
The passing of the Referendum was the prerequisite of
change. It was also a necessary tool of conservation and
protection. It was the mandate-to act in Aboriginal interests given
the Commonwealth in 1967 which just last week made it
possible to protect sacred sites near Alice Springs.
It is appropriate tonight that we acknowledge the many
positive achievements since 1967.
In addition to that broader awareness of Aboriginal
history and culture, there are concrete indications of
change for the better.
Last year we established the Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation. Its creation, by unanimous vote of the parliament, is
itself evidence of the feeling in Australia that this
must be the decade of change.
I have great faith in the Council I think it offers us
our best ever chance.
The ground for its success has been better prepared than
at any time in the past.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are~ increasingly
participating in the mainstream of sociezy.
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There are more graduates. In 1979 just 8 per cant
completed secondary school in 1991 that figure was
thirty per cent.
Perhaps the most outstanding achievement is the extent to
which Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been
given power to decide programs and policy directions.
Having an Aboriginal head of a statutory authority in
1967 was unthinkable beside me tonight are Um such
people. Having an organisation like ATSIC, all of whose leaders
and decision makers must be by law Aborigines or Torres
Strait Islanders, was unthinkable.
Having Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in
positions of real power was unthinkable.
Today they have such positions it is unthinkable that
they should not.
There is another development which is I think the most
heartening of all.
It Is that more and more Australians are identifying
themselves as Aboriginal.
There is a growing pride in being an Aboriginal or Torres
Strait Islander, in being descended from the first
Australians I-holieve that is a good sign for all of
US. it suggests the pride we will all need to have in
ourselves if we are going to overcome those inequities
and attitudes which shame us.
I believe that this year can be a turning point, as 1967
was. We can change attitudes through education, through all
manner of interventions and support, through our own best
efforts. But we will not change them satisfactorily and for all
time until we begin to bridge the great gulf in living
conditions. In pursuing our goals we should adopt as our guiding
philosophy the achievement of real and measurable
results; on establishing the building blocks of change,
those concrete improvements in living conditions which in
the end will be the surest guarantee against prejudice
and discrimination.
In 1992 you can be sure that the Australian Government
does not regard these issues in the way they have s0
often been regarded as marginal.
They are central. They are central to the notions of
democratic justice and human progress which are at the
heart of our traditions.
They are central to our identity and self-esteem.
They are central to our reputation in the world.
They are central to the debate about what kind of society
we want.
It is the issues which are central now. It is the people
the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who must
be central in the future. Central, I mean, to Australian
society, the Australian nation.
And I firmly believe that if we pursue our goals with the
same determination which brought about the Referendum
twenty five years ago we will do that.
Thank you.