PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER TO PARLIAMENT
RESOLUTION ON THE ABORIGINAL AND
TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE
CANBERRA 23 AUGUST 1988
Madam Speaker,
I move, that this House
acknowledges that:
Australia was occupied by Aborigimes and Torres Strait
Islanders who had settled for thousands of years before
British settlement at Sydney cove on January 26, 1788;
Aborigines and Torres-Strait Islanders suffered
dispossession and dispersal upon acquisition of their
traditional lands by the British Crown; and
Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were denied full
citizenship rights of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to
the 1967 Referendum.
and affirms: the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
culture and heritage; and
the entitlement of Aborigines and Torres Strait
Islanders to self-management and self-determination subject
to the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth of
Australia; and considers it desirable that the Commonwealth further
promote reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait-
Islander citizens providing recognition of their special
place in the Commonwealth of Australia.
Madam Speaker,
Yesterday we celebrated the opening of the Parliament's new
and permanent home with ceremony and dignity, in a spirit of
amity and with a renewed determination to fulfil our
responsibilities to serve the people of Australia.
Today the ceremonies are over and we are getting down to
work. .1341~ 3
2.
But it is my belief that we cannot afford easily to put
aside that constructive awareness of our national obligation
which pervaded the opening of this building.
It is with that in mind that I am moving this resolution and
seeking for it the wholehearted support of the House.
This motion is not another item of ceremony to be performed
and then forgotten when-we get down to the real business of
politics. This motion is our real business the beginnimg of our
Parliamemtar~ duties in our new building.
In our Bicentennial year, and at the outset of our first
working day in this Chamber, a motion such as this could
hardly be more appropriate.
Because our mew beginnings in this building allow us to
focus with fresh minds on the great question the great
challenge posed by our celebration of 200 years of
European settlement: the nation's relationship with its
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens.
At the start of our Bicentennial year, the Australian Heads
of Churches issued a statement titled " Towards
Reconciliation in Australian Society".
The idea for this resolution originated with that statement
and the precise words of the resolution have been suggested
by the Churches.
For this reason, and to prevent the injection of party
politics into this resolution, I believe it should be voted
on without amendment from either side of the House.
The motion is in three parts.
It begins by acknowledging as historical truths
the prior occupation and settlement of Australia by the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
the dispossession and dispersal they suffered after
1768; and
the denial of full citizenship rights to them until
1967.
Whatever one's political views or social theories those are
undeniable facts of the Australian story.
But it is not sufficient merely to acknowledge those truths
without drawing out their implications I believe their
inevitable implications.
13-11i'
Accordingly this motion goes on it its second part to affirm
the importance of the Aboriginal culture and the entitlement
of Aboriginal people to a substantial degree of
self-management.
The acknowledgement of these historical truths and the
affirmation of these implications by this Parliament and
preferably a unanimous acknowledgement and affirmation
will go a long way towards their greater acceptance
throughout the community.
But it would still be inadequate to leave the issue at that
point. We must add one logical step and draw one conclusion of
ultimate significance.
We must, if we are truly to fulfil our responsibilities as
the elected representatives of the Australian people,
express our utmost determination to promote reconciliation
within our community.
And we must do it today.
We must, in the words of the third part of this motion,
state the desirability of the Commonwealth further promoting
reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
citizens, providing recognition of their special place in
the Commonwealth of Australia.
Madam Speaker,
In the informal discussions which have taken place among
members concerning this motion the view has sometimes been
put that such a motion is purely symbolic and therefore of
no importance or relevance to the Aboriginal and Islander
people. I reject that view firmly.
For many years Governments of both political affiliations
have endeavoured to provide what could be termed physical or
technical solutions to the needs of the Aboriginal and
Islander people.
They have provided special assistance to help them in
education, housing, employment, health and other fields.
But we recognise we must do more.
For the education, housing, employment, and health standards
of Aboriginal and Islander people still lag far behind those
of the rest of the community.
My Government is proud of its record in continuing and
improving this flow of assistance. We will continue to do
so as the Budget speech of the Treasurer will clearly
indicate tonight. 1345
Yet we also recognise that the true remedy does not lie
purely in the allocation of resources.
For if we provide budgetary assistance but not hope, not
confidence, not effective consultation, not reconciliation,
then that assistance will fail to lift Aboriginal and
Islander people from their disadvantaged state.
In the past, too many of those programs of assistance have
been decided on by Governments without the informed
involvement of the people they were designed to assist.
Even more fundamentally, those physical remedies for the
physical needs of the Aboriginal people have not been
accompanied by proper recognition of their cultural
tradition or of their legitimate place in Australian
society. The proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission will be one major step in the direction of
self-determination and self-management for the Aboriginal
and Islander citizens of this nation.
At the same time, the Government is committed to a real and
lasting reconciliation, achieved through full consultation
and honest negotiation, between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal citizens of this nation.
This will be recognised by the Preamble to the Commission
legislation. It will be recognised by the compact or treaty which we are
committed to negotiating with Aboriginal and Islander
people.
And, Madam Speaker, it will be recognised by our support for
this resolution.
Without this overall approach, without a proper settlement
and proper recognition, there can be no real and lasting
improvement for the Aboriginal and Islander people.
That is why this resolution is no mere symbolism or empty
tokenism.
Madam Speaker,
This resolution will not be the first formal recognition of
the special position of the Aboriginal and Islander people.
In 1967 the people of Australia voted overwhelmingly in a
referendum initiated by the Liberal-Country Party Government
to give the Commonwealth the right to make special laws for
Aboriginal people. Significantly, this referendum had the
support of all major political parties.
,1 4 Gt
In 1975, Senator Bonner's motion on " prior ownership" was
debated by the Senate. That was Parliament's first formal
step in setting the record straight and in pointing the way
to reconciliation. Significantly again, it had bipartisan
support.
Today, Parliament must make a further statement. We must
tell the. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that
their feelings of dispossession generated by 200 years of
mon-Aboriginal settlement are recognised, that their culture
and heritage is valued, and that through self-management
their need for a more empowered place in the nation's life
is affirmed.
And more than that, this resolution will tell all
Australiams, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, that we are
prepared to enter our third century of life together on this
continent in a spirit of national reconciliation not
collective national guilt, not shame, but with proof of our
capacity to recognise past wrongs and to build on that
recognition a shared future of understanding and goodwill.
What is required by Government is the golitical will to
follow through with these goals.
In a recent article about the proposed treaty, " Nugget"
Coombs said: " It's a politician's job to recognise when the
will is there to do something: but they also have a
responsibility to create that will."
And on the spurious claim that such a path to reconciliation
would create division in the community " Nugget" Coombs went
on, " It's newer divisive to correct injustice. The fact of
injustice is divisive and will continue to be until we
correct it and learn to live with it. People who benefit
from injustice will oppose this, but you don't stop working
for justice simply because people around you don't like it."
The Government is committed to correcting the injustices of
the past. The political will is there, the support is
there, as evidenced by this resolution from the Churches.
The aim is that we will all move forward together in a
happier, more just and unified society.
I commend the Australian Heads of Churches' for their
initiative in suggesting this important step on the road to
reconciliation and I am pleased to see them represented in
this Chamber today.
Madam Speaker,
In full recognition of the significance of this moment to
Parliament and, not just to Parliament, but to all
Australians, I now commend this resolution to the House. 13. 47