Page 1084 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 April 1994
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Australian citizens of this last decade of the twentieth century have their origins in many cultures. They come from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, the Pacific Islands - everywhere around the world. There is scarcely a country in the world, I submit, which is not represented amongst us today, and we welcome and value their contributions to our uniquely Australian culture and lifestyle. Our multicultural heritage makes us rich in diversity beyond measure. This applies equally to our original Australians. We value their special culture and their heritage, and the particular qualities that they add to our society, in a measure no less than that placed on those citizens whose origins lie beyond Australia.
We, as Australians, believe in justice and equity for all Australians, and that includes, or should include, without qualification, our citizens whose culture predates the arrival of Europeans and other migrants to this country. To the extent that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have suffered because of the actions of later arrivals, or because of failure on their part to act in justice, then we should participate in a process of reconciliation. This can only benefit us all. These Australians have an unqualified right to justice and equity, as the motion asserts. We should all freely and unreservedly adopt the ideas inherent in this motion and commit ourselves to achieving the objectives which it asserts. The Liberal Party, in opposition, supports this motion without qualification.
MS SZUTY (4.34): In speaking on this important motion I would like to remind the Assembly of my closing remarks when speaking on 1 March about the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples, which was 1993. I said:
I believe that it is important for our future well-being that our ever-growing ACT community effectively comes to terms with the issues of reconciliation in relation to our own indigenous peoples, for our mutual and advantageous benefit for many years to come.
The Commonwealth's Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 is about doing just that. The preamble to the Act sets the scene for the council, saying that Australia was occupied by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders for thousands of years before British settlement in 1788; that many Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders suffered dispossession and dispersal from their traditional lands; that there has been no formal reconciliation between Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians; that by the year 2001, the centenary of Federation, it is most desirable that there be such a reconciliation, and that the Commonwealth will seek ongoing national commitment from governments at all levels to address progressively Aboriginal disadvantage and aspirations.
The Act provides a guide to the role of the council in its definition of the object, functions and powers of the council. The object is essentially to promote reconciliation, including the fostering of a continuing national contribution from government at all levels to redress Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. The functions, which include advising the Minister, may be summarised as follows: To undertake initiatives for promoting reconciliation, particularly at the community level; to promote understanding of the history, cultures, past dispossession and continuing disadvantage of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and of the need to redress disadvantage; to foster an ongoing national commitment to cooperate to redress disadvantage; to provide a forum for
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