Reparations for the stolen generations - Government responds - Senator Aden Ridgeway

Reparations for the stolen generations - Government responds

Speech delivered by Senator Aden Ridgeway

Acknowledgement of the Eora nation as the Tradition Owners on whose land we meet.

Acknowledgement of guests from overseas, Parliamentary colleagues, Social Justice Commissioner Mr Bill Jonas, Justice Elizabeth Evatt, ATSIC Commissioners, distinguished guests.

Acknowledgement of the members of the stolen generations and their input into the conference.

One of the clear messages that has come through the conference, and also through the experiences relayed by our Indigenous visitors from overseas, is that reparations for harm done to Indigenous Peoples requires a political response - rather than a legal remedy.

Australia and the legacy of the stolen generations is no exception to this conclusion.

I think we are also agreed that a very particular type of political response is required in acknowledgement that reparations are due because gross violations of fundamental human rights occurred in this country as a result of government policy and legislation of the day.

It matters not that some might regard this as history. The reality is that the political response needs to be humane - compassionate - comprehensive - and responsive to the needs and aspirations of the stolen generations, their families, their descendents and the communities that were deprived of generations of children.

This was the premise that underpinned the Minority Report that I wrote last year after having been a member of the Senate Committee of Inquiry into the Stolen Generations, and the Federal Government's response to the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report.

As the Australian Democrats stated in that minority report: Healing: a legacy of generations, the recommendations of the BTH Report are not a collection of options for governments to choose from.

What we were essentially saying, and what the Human Rights Commission said during the Senate inquiry, was that the recommendations are a package of complementary measures that need to be implemented as a whole.

Collectively, it is about those recommendations constituting the minimum acceptable response required to heal the legacy that is borne by members of the stolen generations, their families and their communities.

This government has done exactly the opposite. It has picked out the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report relating to family reunions and the need for the provision of Link Up services and then determined, in defiance of all of the recommendations and evidence put forward in both the Bringing Them Home report and the recent inquiry, that that alone is going to address the ongoing suffering of the stolen generations, their families and their communities.

More recently, as Bill Jonas pointed out yesterday, the Government has gone so far as to determine for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders what the 'key issues' are in our communities.

Far be it for me to suggest that this is essentially the statutory role designated to ATSIC as the peak national body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

We are being told that the stolen generations need to understand that they have to take a back seat to the more pressing and "real issues" of domestic violence. We all need to stop getting "caught up in distractions" like the centrality of a formal parliamentary apology, reparations, and indeed the rights agenda.

This may be the Government's view about where the debate is at in this country - but, quite frankly, you have to wonder who the other party is that is engaged in this dialogue with Government - because both of them have missed the point, and no one is actually listening to what Indigenous people are saying.

There is no hierarchy of issues in Indigenous Affairs.

We don't rank the need to address domestic violence above the need to respond to the needs of the stolen generations.

Correct me if I'm wrong - but I thought we've been saying that the two are inter-related.

All issues confronting Indigenous communities are important. The Government of the day is obliged to negotiate the priorities with (and not to the exclusion of) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

A rights agenda is about delivering social justice and real equality to all Australians, regardless of race.

At what point did Indigenous people in this country shuffle the deck of issues we want addressed and lay a single card at the government's feet?

I want go back some observations that were made by the Human Rights Commission in its submission to the Senate committee. One of the observations was that the adequacy of the Commonwealth response to the BTH Report is best measured by assessing the redress provided against the harm done, rather than trying to highlight the lack of redress from other sources or by attempting to transfer the responsibility to other groups, such as states and churches.

Maybe we'll never be able to put a measure on the harm done, but we can certainly measure the redress that has or has not been provided.

In the last Budget, the Government announced it would provide an additional $54 million over the next four years for parenting programs, counselling services, mental health counsellors and Link Up services.

This suggests that the government did hear the message of those members of the stolen generations who appeared before the Senate committee, detailing the difficulty in accessing family Link Up services and giving their stories of how overwhelmed and underresourced these services are.

But it is also a reality that the initial $63 million in funding was about to run out.

Whilst that is a welcome step in the right direction, it is hardly in line with the spirit of the BTH recommendations.

It means that this Government has allocated a total of $117 million for the 8 years from 1998 to 2006 to meet the needs of the stolen generations, their families and communities.

But if we are talking about at least 1 in 10 Indigenous Australians being directly effected by forcible removal policies - and probably every Indigenous person being affected - how far does $117 million go with nearly 300,000 of us?

I think the question also needs to be asked of the Government: how much of this additional $54 million really is new funding or, as was the case with most of the funding in the government's initial $63 million response to the Bringing Them Home report, how much is simply old money that has been rebadged.

I do not think there is any clear indication about whether we are looking at the same process having been gone through again or whether in fact it is new money. Perhaps the Minister can advise us on this question …

In its response to the report, the Australian government decided, against all other advice, that the stolen generations do not need guarantees against repetition or a formal apology or a reparations tribunal or compensation.

If the government were genuine and sincere in making the comment that it wants to "acknowledge the events of the past and their legacy", surely we would expect as a very minimum, that it would adopt the main recommendation of the Senate committee report, that is, committing to the establishment of a reparations tribunal to provide an alternative to the courts.

But where is the ALP in this debate?

In November last year, with the release of the joint Democrats/ALP Majority Report on the Senate Inquiry - the answer was very straightforward.

I think it worth reminding ourselves what were in those ten recommendations put forward by the ALP and the Democrats in our report:

1. An independent evaluation of the government's response to the BTH Report to be completed prior to June 2001. [This has not occurred, but the recent MCATSIA meeting agreed to undertake such an evaluation].

2. The Commonwealth to convene a national summit within 12 months of the Federal Government's response to the Senate Inquiry to progress these 10 recommendations. [The Government only delivered its response in June 2001.]

3. A national apology.

4. An apology from the NT Government - they are about to go to the polls, so the jury is out.

5. Construction of a national memorial - there is some debate as to whether 'Reconciliation Place' in the parliamentary zone of Canberra can be regarded as fulfilling this recommendation.

6. An effective and independent co-ordination and monitoring process for all programs relating to the stolen generations, which takes on board the recommendations in the BTH Report that COAG, together with HREOC are the appropriate bodies - not MCATSIA.

7. Establish a reparations tribunal to deliver effective reparations including the provision of individual monetary compensation.

8. Use of the PIAC tribunal model as the template for public discussion.

9. That discussion at the National Summit (recommendation 2) be used to flesh out the form and operations of the tribunal.

10. That discussions commence immediately with the stolen generations, their representative organisations and ATSIC regarding the agenda for the national summit.

When you reflect on those recommendations - and you look at the public position that the ALP has taken since they were tabled last November - it is disconcerting to see that the ALP is backing away from its commitment to the PIAC model, and indeed from any mention of the need for a tribunal or the potential for individual monetary compensation.

This may be an issue that Bob McMullan wants to set straight today …

The other planks of the ALP policy on the stolen generations relate to:

1. A national apology in the first sitting week of a new Parliament.

2. Monitoring and annual reporting to Parliament by HREOC on the progress of the implementation of the recommendations of the BTH Report.

So far so good.

3. A national conference to examine methods of resolving the consequences of forced removal. So where does this leave the ALP recommendations in the Senate Report backing a reparations tribunal, and the PIAC model as a starting point for further discussions?? In any case, I think the time for general conferences on the stolen generations has passed. The stolen generations spoke to the Human Rights Commission during the BTH Inquiry, and renewed its call for action at the Senate Inquiry. Many of you were at the national stolen generations conference in South Australia in March, and are here today again.

I think we need to commend PIAC, HREOC and the stolen generations for progressing the model of a tribunal themselves - and demonstrating just how easy it is to give effect to the BTH recommendations regarding reparations.

As I think some of the speakers commented yesterday - the needs of the stolen generations and their communities are too pressing for people to wait for governments to lead the way.

Indigenous communities are taking on the healing responsibility for themselves, because they recognise that the separations didn't end in 1970, and they are seeing history repeat itself in their children and grandchildren.

We cannot afford to loose another generation of our children to misguided policies and laws that are supposedly colour-blind, but result in Indigenous children in this State being removed from their families to out-of-home care at the rate of 10 to 1 relative to non-Indigenous children.

The straight-jacket of a mono-cultural Australia remains very much alive in this country when we have governments that are prepared to pass and enforce mandatory sentencing laws and anti-social behaviour laws' as in WA and the NT - and a Federal Government that has demonstrated that it regards them as generally 'benign in intent.

Some of the additional recommendations from the Democrats' Minority Report

At the very least, we should:

1. Federal Government's funding package to implement the BTH recommendations should be ongoing and subject to regular review in terms of its adequacy by an independent auditing body.

2. The Churches proceed with their plans to establish their own compensation fund to facilitate the delivery of reparations, including compensation - and not wait for governments to take the lead. They should not be withholding records, or as Chris Gallus recently revealed, be destroying records for fear of exposing themselves to compensation calims.

3. That COAG, as the peak Ministerial body representing all levels of government, take up the responsibility of ensuring the delivery of a co-ordinated, effective, whole-of-government response to the recommendations of the BTH Report.

4. Implement national legislation which establishes minimum national standards of treatment and protection of all Indigenous children, incorporating the Indigenous Child Placement Principle at the national level.

The blueprint for government action is there - its now remains a question of who will be elected to government to give effect to the spirit and the letter of the recommendations.

In closing, I want to refer to remarks by South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

He said: "My humanity is caught up in your humanity. I am because you are.

A person is a person through other persons. An offence breaks a relationship, ruptures an inter-connectedness, a harmony so essential for a full human existence."

Australians need to find a way to rediscover our inter-connectedness, our common humanity.

Without social justice - without social harmony, we will only ever reach part of our potential - regardless of whether we are Indigenous or non-Indigenous Australians.

Minister, I want to say one final thing: there is a great difference between establishing the parameters of difficulty and building fences.

Government needs to negotiate the parameters and work through the difficulties with the members of the stolen generations.

Constructing fences is not helpful, and it is disingenuous to suggest that a tribunal or a more compassionate response cannot be achieved. It is only by working with the people that a difference will be made.

Afterall, there is a well established precedent in this country of compensating victims' claims in all manner of situations - whether it be the soldiers and their widows who were interned as prisoners of war whilst defending this country in various military conflicts overseas - or because they were beaten as children at school.

We are prepared to see justice done for these categories of abuse and human rights violations - yet there is no corresponding compassion or willingness to readdress the circumstances of the stolen generations.

Thank you.