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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2382 ..

BR MUNDINE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition, today is a very significant day, and a very sad day in a lot of ways, because it is the time when we Australians, as a whole, begin to face up to the facts and begin to acknowledge that continual theft from Aboriginal people. First, it was theft of the land; then, it was of the children; and, as we are reading in the papers, also of our bodies, with the group from Western Australia who are now heading to England to retrieve our bodies. It is a very sad time, a time of great mourning, in a sense.

I would like to thank very much my sisters and brothers here this morning for being able to tell their story, because I do not have first-hand experience of it. I was one of the lucky ones. I was never taken away. But, in the work that I do for the Catholic Church, I travel across the country and continually come across people who have been separated, stolen, ripped away from their families. It is always a sad time for me to sit with them and to hear their story, because it is the story of my people and, as I said at the beginning, a story that has never been acknowledged.

We are at present in a great time of reconciliation, with all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples coming together with our non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters and trying to live together in harmony. But I can say, for starters, that it will never happen until we begin to face the facts here in this country. My background is that of the church. The church has been involved in reconciliation for years - in fact, for almost 2,000 years, or more. So, this whole reconciliation thing is nothing new to us. But one thing that is important is at the beginning being able to put the base down correctly. That base, which is good to see in the actual report, is first of all to acknowledge the truth that this did take place, that human beings did it to one another, and then to realise that it was wrong.

I work for the Catholic Church. I cannot speak for any bishops; but we have expressed very strongly - and I would like to re-emphasise it again to the members here in the gallery - that the Catholic Church is deeply sorrowed by the role that it played in the separation of children. It is to the credit of this Assembly that they also have taken this first small but very important and significant step to acknowledging that something was done that was wrong. In this case, I refer to the stolen generation.

It also raises a question for us, and especially for you, about making legislation. A couple of weeks ago in a court case involving some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Territory, the court told us that there was nothing legally wrong with what took place here with the stolen generation. But we know now how absolutely horrendous that particular act was. As you are making laws for all Australians, you have to really think about what effect that will have on the people that that Act is aimed at.

I am reassured, from what you say in the second part of your motion, about your determination that it will never happen again. We, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, have heard all this before. We are assured all the time that these things will never happen again. But I can honestly say that, within some of the children's services throughout this country, this is still being committed today. I am aware that at the present time you are having a review of your Children's Services Act. So, it would be important to watch it very carefully, to make sure that this does not happen again.

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