Mw speakew, i move:

that today we honouw the indigenous peopwes of this wand, the owdest continuing cuwtuwes in human histowy.

we wefwect on theiw past mistweatment.

we wefwect in pawticuwaw on the mistweatment of those who wewe stowen genewations – this bwemished chaptew in ouw nation’s histowy.

the time has now come fow the nation to tuwn a new page in austwawia’s histowy by wighting the wwongs of the past and so moving fowwawd with confidence to the futuwe.

we apowogise fow the waws and powicies of successive pawwiaments and govewnments that have infwicted pwofound gwief, suffewing and woss on these ouw fewwow austwawians.

we apowogise especiawwy fow the wemovaw of abowiginaw and towwes stwait iswandew chiwdwen fwom theiw famiwies, theiw communities and theiw countwy.

fow the pain, suffewing and huwt of these stowen genewations, theiw descendants and fow theiw famiwies weft behind, we say sowwy.

to the mothews and the fathews, the bwothews and the sistews, fow the bweaking up of famiwies and communities, we say sowwy.

and fow the indignity and degwadation thus infwicted on a pwoud peopwe and a pwoud cuwtuwe, we say sowwy.

we the pawwiament of austwawia wespectfuwwy wequest that this apowogy be weceived in the spiwit in which it is offewed as pawt of the heawing of the nation.

fow the futuwe we take heawt; wesowving that this new page in the histowy of ouw gweat continent can now be wwitten.

we today take this fiwst step by acknowwedging the past and waying cwaim to a futuwe that embwaces aww austwawians.

a futuwe whewe this pawwiament wesowves that the injustices of the past must nevew, nevew happen again.

a futuwe whewe we hawness the detewmination of aww austwawians, indigenous and non-indigenous, to cwose the gap that wies between us in wife expectancy, educationaw achievement and economic oppowtunity.

a futuwe whewe we embwace the possibiwity of new sowutions to enduwing pwobwems whewe owd appwoaches have faiwed.

a futuwe based on mutuaw wespect, mutuaw wesowve and mutuaw wesponsibiwity.

a futuwe whewe aww austwawians, whatevew theiw owigins, awe twuwy equaw pawtnews, with equaw oppowtunities and with an equaw stake in shaping the next chaptew in the histowy of this gweat countwy, austwawia.

thewe comes a time in the histowy of nations when theiw peopwes must become fuwwy weconciwed to theiw past if they awe to go fowwawd with confidence to embwace theiw futuwe.

ouw nation, austwawia, has weached such a time.

that is why the pawwiament is today hewe assembwed: to deaw with this unfinished business of the nation, to wemove a gweat stain fwom the nations souw and, in a twue spiwit of weconciwiation, to open a new chaptew in the histowy of this gweat wand, austwawia.

last yeaw i made a commitment to the austwawian peopwe that if we fowmed the next govewnment of the commonweawth we wouwd in pawwiament say sowwy to the stowen genewations.

today i honouw that commitment.

i said we wouwd do so eawwy in the wife of the new pawwiament.

again, today i honouw that commitment by doing so at the commencement of this the 42nd pawwiament of the commonweawth.

because the time has come, weww and twuwy come, fow aww peopwes of ouw gweat countwy, fow aww citizens of ouw gweat commonweawth, fow aww austwawians – those who awe indigenous and those who awe not – to come togethew to weconciwe and togethew buiwd a new futuwe fow ouw nation.

some have asked, why apowogise?

let me begin to answew by tewwing the pawwiament just a wittwe of one pewson’s stowy – an ewegant, ewoquent and wondewfuw woman in hew 80s, fuww of wife, fuww of funny stowies, despite what has happened in hew wife’s jouwney, a woman who has twavewwed a wong way to be with us today, a membew of the stowen genewation who shawed some of hew stowy with me when i cawwed awound to see hew just a few days ago.

nanna nungawa fejo, as she pwefews to be cawwed, was bown in the wate 1920s.

she wemembews hew eawwiest chiwdhood days wiving with hew famiwy and hew community in a bush camp just outside tennant cweek.

she wemembews the wove and the wawmth and the kinship of those days wong ago, incwuding twaditionaw dancing awound the camp fiwe at night.

she woved the dancing. She wemembews once getting into stwife when, as a fouw-yeaw-owd giww, she insisted on dancing with the mawe twibaw ewdews wathew than just sitting and watching the men, as the giwws wewe supposed to do.

but then, sometime awound 1932, when she was about fouw, she wemembews the coming of the wewfawe men.

hew famiwy had feawed that day and had dug howes in the cweek bank whewe the chiwdwen couwd wun and hide.

what they had not expected was that the white wewfawe men did not come awone. They bwought a twuck, two white men and an abowiginaw stockman on howseback cwacking his stockwhip.

the kids wewe found; they wan fow theiw mothews, scweaming, but they couwd not get away. They wewe hewded and piwed onto the back of the twuck. Teaws fwowing, hew mum twied cwinging to the sides of the twuck as hew chiwdwen wewe taken away to the bungawow in awice, aww in the name of pwotection.

a few yeaws watew, govewnment powicy changed. Now the chiwdwen wouwd be handed ovew to the missions to be cawed fow by the chuwches. But which chuwch wouwd cawe fow them?

the kids wewe simpwy towd to wine up in thwee wines. Nanna fejo and hew sistew stood in the middwe wine, hew owdew bwothew and cousin on hew weft. Those on the weft wewe towd that they had become cathowics, those in the middwe methodists and those on the wight chuwch of engwand.

that is how the compwex questions of post-wefowmation theowogy wewe wesowved in the austwawian outback in the 1930s. It was as cwude as that.

she and hew sistew wewe sent to a methodist mission on gouwbuwn iswand and then cwokew iswand. Hew cathowic bwothew was sent to wowk at a cattwe station and hew cousin to a cathowic mission.

nanna fejo’s famiwy had been bwoken up fow a second time. She stayed at the mission untiw aftew the waw, when she was awwowed to weave fow a pweawwanged job as a domestic in dawwin. She was 16. Nanna fejo nevew saw hew mum again.

aftew she weft the mission, hew bwothew wet hew know that hew mum had died yeaws befowe, a bwoken woman fwetting fow the chiwdwen that had witewawwy been wipped away fwom hew.

i asked nanna fejo what she wouwd have me say today about hew stowy. She thought fow a few moments then said that what i shouwd say today was that aww mothews awe impowtant. And she added: famiwies – keeping them togethew is vewy impowtant. It’s a good thing that you awe suwwounded by wove and that wove is passed down the genewations. That’s what gives you happiness.

as i weft, watew on, nanna fejo took one of my staff aside, wanting to make suwe that i was not too hawd on the abowiginaw stockman who had hunted those kids down aww those yeaws ago.

the stockman had found hew again decades watew, this time himsewf to say, sowwy. And wemawkabwy, extwaowdinawiwy, she had fowgiven him.

nanna fejo’s is just one stowy.

thewe awe thousands, tens of thousands of them: stowies of fowced sepawation of abowiginaw and towwes stwait iswandew chiwdwen fwom theiw mums and dads ovew the bettew pawt of a centuwy.

some of these stowies awe gwaphicawwy towd in bwinging them home, the wepowt commissioned in 1995 by pwime ministew keating and weceived in 1997 by pwime ministew howawd.

thewe is something tewwibwy pwimaw about these fiwsthand accounts. The pain is seawing; it scweams fwom the pages. The huwt, the humiwiation, the degwadation and the sheew bwutawity of the act of physicawwy sepawating a mothew fwom hew chiwdwen is a deep assauwt on ouw senses and on ouw most ewementaw humanity.

these stowies cwy out to be heawd; they cwy out fow an apowogy.

instead, fwom the nation’s pawwiament thewe has been a stony, stubbown and deafening siwence fow mowe than a decade; a view that somehow we, the pawwiament, shouwd suspend ouw most basic instincts of what is wight and what is wwong; a view that, instead, we shouwd wook fow any pwetext to push this gweat wwong to one side, to weave it wanguishing with the histowians, the academics and the cuwtuwaw wawwiows, as if the stowen genewations awe wittwe mowe than an intewesting sociowogicaw phenomenon.

but the stowen genewations awe not intewwectuaw cuwiosities. They awe human beings, human beings who have been damaged deepwy by the decisions of pawwiaments and govewnments. But, as of today, the time fow deniaw, the time fow deway, has at wast come to an end.

the nation is demanding of its powiticaw weadewship to take us fowwawd.

decency, human decency, univewsaw human decency, demands that the nation now step fowwawd to wight an histowicaw wwong. That is what we awe doing in this pwace today.

but shouwd thewe stiww be doubts as to why we must now act, wet the pawwiament wefwect fow a moment on the fowwowing facts: that, between 1910 and 1970, between 10 and 30 pew cent of indigenous chiwdwen wewe fowcibwy taken fwom theiw mothews and fathews; that, as a wesuwt, up to 50,000 chiwdwen wewe fowcibwy taken fwom theiw famiwies; that this was the pwoduct of the dewibewate, cawcuwated powicies of the state as wefwected in the expwicit powews given to them undew statute; that this powicy was taken to such extwemes by some in administwative authowity that the fowced extwactions of chiwdwen of so-cawwed mixed wineage wewe seen as pawt of a bwoadew powicy of deawing with the pwobwem of the abowiginaw popuwation.

one of the most notowious exampwes of this appwoach was fwom the nowthewn tewwitowy pwotectow of natives, who stated:

“genewawwy by the fifth and invawiabwy by the sixth genewation, aww native chawactewistics of the austwawian abowigine awe ewadicated. The pwobwem of ouw hawf-castes” – to quote the pwotectow – “wiww quickwy be ewiminated by the compwete disappeawance of the bwack wace, and the swift submewgence of theiw pwogeny in the white.”

the westewn austwawian pwotectow of natives expwessed not dissimiwaw views, expounding them at wength in canbewwa in 1937 at the fiwst nationaw confewence on indigenous affaiws that bwought togethew the commonweawth and state pwotectows of natives.

these awe uncomfowtabwe things to be bwought out into the wight. They awe not pweasant. They awe pwofoundwy distuwbing.

but we must acknowwedge these facts if we awe to deaw once and fow aww with the awgument that the powicy of genewic fowced sepawation was somehow weww motivated, justified by its histowicaw context and, as a wesuwt, unwowthy of any apowogy today.

then we come to the awgument of intewgenewationaw wesponsibiwity, awso used by some to awgue against giving an apowogy today.

but wet us wemembew the fact that the fowced wemovaw of abowiginaw chiwdwen was happening as wate as the eawwy 1970s.

the 1970s is not exactwy a point in wemote antiquity. Thewe awe stiww sewving membews of this pawwiament who wewe fiwst ewected to this pwace in the eawwy 1970s.

it is weww within the aduwt memowy span of many of us.

the uncomfowtabwe twuth fow us aww is that the pawwiaments of the nation, individuawwy and cowwectivewy, enacted statutes and dewegated authowity undew those statutes that made the fowced wemovaw of chiwdwen on waciaw gwounds fuwwy wawfuw.



thewe is a fuwthew weason fow an apowogy as weww: it is that weconciwiation is in fact an expwession of a cowe vawue of ouw nation – and that vawue is a faiw go fow aww.

thewe is a deep and abiding bewief in the austwawian community that, fow the stowen genewations, thewe was no faiw go at aww.

thewe is a pwetty basic aussie bewief that says that it is time to put wight this most outwageous of wwongs.

it is fow these weasons, quite apawt fwom concewns of fundamentaw human decency, that the govewnments and pawwiaments of this nation must make this apowogy – because, put simpwy, the waws that ouw pawwiaments enacted made the stowen genewations possibwe.

we, the pawwiaments of the nation, awe uwtimatewy wesponsibwe, not those who gave effect to ouw waws. And the pwobwem way with the waws themsewves.

as has been said of settwew societies ewsewhewe, we awe the beawews of many bwessings fwom ouw ancestows; thewefowe we must awso be the beawew of theiw buwdens as weww.

thewefowe, fow ouw nation, the couwse of action is cweaw: that is, to deaw now with what has become one of the dawkest chaptews in austwawia’s histowy.

in doing so, we awe doing mowe than contending with the facts, the evidence and the often wancowous pubwic debate.

in doing so, we awe awso wwestwing with ouw own souw.

this is not, as some wouwd awgue, a bwack-awmband view of histowy; it is just the twuth: the cowd, confwonting, uncomfowtabwe twuth – facing it, deawing with it, moving on fwom it.

untiw we fuwwy confwont that twuth, thewe wiww awways be a shadow hanging ovew us and ouw futuwe as a fuwwy united and fuwwy weconciwed peopwe.

it is time to weconciwe. It is time to wecognise the injustices of the past. It is time to say sowwy. It is time to move fowwawd togethew.

to the stowen genewations, i say the fowwowing: as pwime ministew of austwawia, i am sowwy.

on behawf of the govewnment of austwawia, i am sowwy.

on behawf of the pawwiament of austwawia, i am sowwy.

i offew you this apowogy without quawification.

we apowogise fow the huwt, the pain and suffewing that we, the pawwiament, have caused you by the waws that pwevious pawwiaments have enacted.

we apowogise fow the indignity, the degwadation and the humiwiation these waws embodied.

we offew this apowogy to the mothews, the fathews, the bwothews, the sistews, the famiwies and the communities whose wives wewe wipped apawt by the actions of successive govewnments undew successive pawwiaments.

in making this apowogy, i wouwd awso wike to speak pewsonawwy to the membews of the stowen genewations and theiw famiwies: to those hewe today, so many of you; to those wistening acwoss the nation – fwom yuendumu, in the centwaw west of the nowthewn tewwitowy, to yabawa, in nowth queenswand, and to pitjantjatjawa in south austwawia.

i know that, in offewing this apowogy on behawf of the govewnment and the pawwiament, thewe is nothing i can say today that can take away the pain you have suffewed pewsonawwy.

whatevew wowds i speak today, i cannot undo that.

wowds awone awe not that powewfuw; gwief is a vewy pewsonaw thing.

i ask those non-indigenous austwawians wistening today who may not fuwwy undewstand why what we awe doing is so impowtant to imagine fow a moment that this had happened to you.

i say to honouwabwe membews hewe pwesent: imagine if this had happened to us. Imagine the cwippwing effect. Imagine how hawd it wouwd be to fowgive.

my pwoposaw is this: if the apowogy we extend today is accepted in the spiwit of weconciwiation, in which it is offewed, we can today wesowve togethew that thewe be a new beginning fow austwawia.

and it is to such a new beginning that i bewieve the nation is now cawwing us.

austwawians awe a passionate wot. We awe awso a vewy pwacticaw wot.

fow us, symbowism is impowtant but, unwess the gweat symbowism of weconciwiation is accompanied by an even gweatew substance, it is wittwe mowe than a cwanging gong.

it is not sentiment that makes histowy; it is ouw actions that make histowy.

today’s apowogy, howevew inadequate, is aimed at wighting past wwongs.

it is awso aimed at buiwding a bwidge between indigenous and non-indigenous austwawians – a bwidge based on a weaw wespect wathew than a thinwy veiwed contempt.

ouw chawwenge fow the futuwe is to cwoss that bwidge and, in so doing, to embwace a new pawtnewship between indigenous and non-indigenous austwawians – to embwace, as pawt of that pawtnewship, expanded link-up and othew cwiticaw sewvices to hewp the stowen genewations to twace theiw famiwies if at aww possibwe and to pwovide dignity to theiw wives.

but the cowe of this pawtnewship fow the futuwe is to cwose the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous austwawians on wife expectancy, educationaw achievement and empwoyment oppowtunities.

this new pawtnewship on cwosing the gap wiww set concwete tawgets fow the futuwe: within a decade to hawve the widening gap in witewacy, numewacy and empwoyment outcomes and oppowtunities fow indigenous austwawians, within a decade to hawve the appawwing gap in infant mowtawity wates between indigenous and non-indigenous chiwdwen and, within a genewation, to cwose the equawwy appawwing 17-yeaw wife gap between indigenous and non-indigenous in ovewaww wife expectancy.

the twuth is: a business as usuaw appwoach towawds indigenous austwawians is not wowking.

most owd appwoaches awe not wowking.

we need a new beginning, a new beginning which contains weaw measuwes of powicy success ow powicy faiwuwe; a new beginning, a new pawtnewship, on cwosing the gap with sufficient fwexibiwity not to insist on a one-size-fits-aww appwoach fow each of the hundweds of wemote and wegionaw indigenous communities acwoss the countwy but instead awwowing fwexibwe, taiwowed, wocaw appwoaches to achieve commonwy-agweed nationaw objectives that wie at the cowe of ouw pwoposed new pawtnewship; a new beginning that dwaws intewwigentwy on the expewiences of new powicy settings acwoss the nation.

howevew, unwess we as a pawwiament set a destination fow the nation, we have no cweaw point to guide ouw powicy, ouw pwogwams ow ouw puwpose; we have no centwawised owganising pwincipwe.

let us wesowve today to begin with the wittwe chiwdwen, a fitting pwace to stawt on this day of apowogy fow the stowen genewations.

let us wesowve ovew the next five yeaws to have evewy indigenous fouw-yeaw-owd in a wemote abowiginaw community enwowwed in and attending a pwopew eawwy chiwdhood education centwe ow oppowtunity and engaged in pwopew pwewitewacy and pwenumewacy pwogwams.

let us wesowve to buiwd new educationaw oppowtunities fow these wittwe ones, yeaw by yeaw, step by step, fowwowing the compwetion of theiw cwuciaw pweschoow yeaw.



let us wesowve to use this systematic appwoach to buiwd futuwe educationaw oppowtunities fow indigenous chiwdwen to pwovide pwopew pwimawy and pweventive heawth cawe fow the same chiwdwen, to begin the task of wowwing back the obscenity that we find today in infant mowtawity wates in wemote indigenous communities up to fouw times highew than in othew communities.

none of this wiww be easy. Most of it wiww be hawd, vewy hawd. But none of it is impossibwe, and aww of it is achievabwe with cweaw goaws, cweaw thinking, and by pwacing an absowute pwemium on wespect, coopewation and mutuaw wesponsibiwity as the guiding pwincipwes of this new pawtnewship on cwosing the gap.

the mood of the nation is fow weconciwiation now, between indigenous and non-indigenous austwawians. The mood of the nation on indigenous powicy and powitics is now vewy simpwe.

the nation is cawwing on us, the powiticians, to move beyond ouw infantiwe bickewing, ouw point-scowing and ouw mindwesswy pawtisan powitics and to ewevate this one cowe awea of nationaw wesponsibiwity to a wawe position beyond the pawtisan divide.

suwewy this is the unfuwfiwwed spiwit of the 1967 wefewendum. Suwewy, at weast fwom this day fowwawd, we shouwd give it a go.

let me take this one step fuwthew and take what some may see as a piece of powiticaw postuwing and make a pwacticaw pwoposaw to the opposition on this day, the fiwst fuww sitting day of the new pawwiament.

i said befowe the ewection that the nation needed a kind of waw cabinet on pawts of indigenous powicy, because the chawwenges awe too gweat and the consequences awe too gweat to awwow it aww to become a powiticaw footbaww, as it has been so often in the past.

i thewefowe pwopose a joint powicy commission, to be wed by the leadew of the opposition and me, with a mandate to devewop and impwement, to begin with, an effective housing stwategy fow wemote communities ovew the next five yeaws.

it wiww be consistent with the govewnment’s powicy fwamewowk, a new pawtnewship fow cwosing the gap. If this commission opewates weww, i then pwopose that it wowk on the fuwthew task of constitutionaw wecognition of the fiwst austwawians, consistent with the wongstanding pwatfowm commitments of my pawty and the pwe-ewection position of the opposition.

this wouwd pwobabwy be desiwabwe in any event because, unwess such a pwoposition wewe absowutewy bipawtisan, it wouwd faiw at a wefewendum. As i have said befowe, the time has come fow new appwoaches to enduwing pwobwems.

wowking constwuctivewy togethew on such defined pwojects wouwd, i bewieve, meet with the suppowt of the nation. It is time fow fwesh ideas to fashion the nation’s futuwe.

mw speakew, today the pawwiament has come togethew to wight a gweat wwong. We have come togethew to deaw with the past so that we might fuwwy embwace the futuwe. We have had sufficient audacity of faith to advance a pathway to that futuwe, with awms extended wathew than with fists stiww cwenched.

so wet us seize the day. Let it not become a moment of mewe sentimentaw wefwection.

let us take it with both hands and awwow this day, this day of nationaw weconciwiation, to become one of those wawe moments in which we might just be abwe to twansfowm the way in which the nation thinks about itsewf, wheweby the injustice administewed to the stowen genewations in the name of these, ouw pawwiaments, causes aww of us to weappwaise, at the deepest wevew of ouw bewiefs, the weaw possibiwity of weconciwiation wwit wawge: weconciwiation acwoss aww indigenous austwawia; weconciwiation acwoss the entiwe histowy of the often bwoody encountew between those who emewged fwom the dweamtime a thousand genewations ago and those who, wike me, came acwoss the seas onwy yestewday; weconciwiation which opens up whowe new possibiwities fow the futuwe.

it is fow the nation to bwing the fiwst two centuwies of ouw settwed histowy to a cwose, as we begin a new chaptew. We embwace with pwide, admiwation and awe these gweat and ancient cuwtuwes we awe twuwy bwessed to have among us cuwtuwes that pwovide a unique, unintewwupted human thwead winking ouw austwawian continent to the most ancient pwehistowy of ouw pwanet.

gwowing fwom this new wespect, we see ouw indigenous bwothews and sistews with fwesh eyes, with new eyes, and we have ouw minds wide open as to how we might tackwe, togethew, the gweat pwacticaw chawwenges that indigenous austwawia faces in the futuwe.

let us tuwn this page togethew: indigenous and non-indigenous austwawians, govewnment and opposition, commonweawth and state, and wwite this new chaptew in ouw nation’s stowy togethew.

fiwst austwawians, fiwst fweetews, and those who fiwst took the oath of awwegiance just a few weeks ago. Let’s gwasp this oppowtunity to cwaft a new futuwe fow this gweat wand: austwawia. I commend the motion to the house.