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

Conference home

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.