RECONCILIATION, YOUTH

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:38): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. How is the government promoting reconciliation amongst young people?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management) (14:39): I thank the honourable member for her question. I know her particular commitment to reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Reconciliation is a much used term, but, fundamentally, it involves the concepts of recognition, justice and healing. Recognition involves all Australians understanding the past and how it affects the lives of Indigenous people today. It requires recognition of the way in which Aboriginal people have been treated in the past. It also requires understanding and recognition of the honoured place of the first Australians in their culture. Without this recognition, there can be no justice, because justice is fundamentally based on truth. Justice is more than legal recognition: it is about just outcomes being essential in everyday life.

A just community values everyone's participation and provides equal life chances for all. It also requires practical measures to address the disadvantage experienced by indigenous people in health, employment, education and general opportunity. It is only with recognition and justice that we can have healing. But, above all, reconciliation is personal and involves each of us changing the way in which we think and behave.

That is why I was honoured over the weekend to be able to present the prizes for the second annual Premier's Award Reconciliation Competition. The awards were announced during Reconciliation Week and invited South Australian students from years 9 to 12 to show their understanding of Aboriginal culture and heritage through a written or creative project based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Australian military campaigns. Prizes were given for both categories, and students could use their entries to gain accreditation towards assessment of a range of subjects.

The competition set students the challenge of uncovering how Aboriginal men and women have served in conflict from 1899 up to the present day. The best estimate is that something like 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served in World War I and about 3,000 in World War II, although there are no actual records of those who enlisted prior to 1980.

It is believed that more than a third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who served overseas were killed in action or died of wounds and disease, which is a much higher casualty rate than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. That many Aboriginal people returned home after distinguished service to a society that did not fully recognise or accept them makes their service and sacrifice even more remarkable. The competition has given students an opportunity and an incentive to delve deeper into Aboriginal and Australian society and their history, as well as our military history.

Schools have reported that, because of the limited information on this aspect of our history, the topic stimulated a lot of class discussion and debate. I acknowledge the winners of the Premier's awards for 2008 for essays, who came from Annesley College, Blackwood High School, Eudunda Area High School and Fremont High School.

I must say that the winners of this project put an extraordinary amount of extra effort and time into their projects. They are fine young South Australians, and it was my great pleasure to personally present the awards to them. They are: Georgina Heddle, Maddie Kavanagh, Jack Gillespie, Kirsty Saville, Larissa Timmons, Alex Christophel and Georgia Mounkley. The winners for the creative project came from Aberfoyle Park High School, and they were: Holly Braidwood, Jarrad Law, Matthew Ward, Nicole Saegenschnitter and Susie Wilsch.