Ministerial Statement

Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:20): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: A person's place in the world—where they have come from, their heritage and their culture—is one of the most fundamental aspects of human identity. It gives us a sense of belonging that informs the very foundations of who we are and how we see ourselves. For many Aboriginal Australians, cultural identity can stretch back hundreds, even thousands, of generations. For members of the oldest living culture on the planet, it is possible to place yourself in a context that stretches further back than most of us can possibly imagine.

But there are many Aboriginal Australians who know little of where they came from because they have been denied the opportunity to know. Forced removals of Aboriginal children from their families, which occurred for many decades of our history in every state and territory of our nation, broke apart thousands of important legacies of history and culture. This is not even to mention the unspeakable human tragedy that forced removals brought upon Aboriginal people.

For those people who are parents, merely imagining the loss of your child is capable of reducing you to tears, but you do not have to be a parent to have a tremendous amount of empathy for anyone who loses a child to a tragedy, an illness or an accident. I would venture to say that we have all known someone or heard the story of someone who has experienced the terrible suffering of losing a child, and by imagining ourselves in their place we can easily get a sense of the unbearable grief that would cause. Even just a hint of that profound sense of loss is painful.

It is that loss and grief that too many Aboriginal families have endured. The brutality of the act of stealing a child away from their family is almost too great to comprehend. It goes against our most fundamental human values. It is quite simply unthinkable. It is unthinkable knowing that past governments were not only complicit but, in many cases, direct perpetrators of cruel acts that ripped Aboriginal families apart, often never to be reunited.

It is unthinkable knowing what this has done to families, entire communities and an entire people. It is unthinkable knowing that we as a nation robbed thousands of children of the fundamental human right to grow up in a loving environment and a belonging environment. It is unthinkable knowing that we as a nation desecrated and denigrated tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal history by denying those children the opportunity to know their cultures, their language and their identity.

It is unthinkable knowing that as a nation we condemned them to live lives of hardship and deprivation in institutions to which they were taken. It is unthinkable knowing that we as a nation deprived them of the freedom to live their own lives, instead forcing them to live lives that were chosen for them. Most disturbing of all, it is unthinkable knowing that successive governments in our nation were capable of endorsing the act of ripping children out of their crying mothers' arms and leaving them with absolutely no power to do anything about it. It is a disturbing part of our history that should not be forgotten.

Imagine that you cannot speak English and some strangers show up in a truck and take your child with no court order, giving no explanation you can understand, leaving you with no documentation as to what they have done, and leaving you with no trace of the children that only moments before were a crucial part of your family and of the future history of your ancient culture. Now they are gone and you have no idea where. You do not have a phone, and even if you had one you would not know who to call. Even if you knew who to call, it is likely you would not speak English, so you would not be able to talk to anyone.

This is how powerless many Aboriginal mothers were when their children were taken away. In today's society, the fact that it all happened beggars belief, but it happened. It happened in our state and across our nation not even so long ago and certainly well within the lifetime of some of the members of this place.

It is essential that we acknowledge the effect that forced removals of Aboriginal children have had, not only on the individuals, families and communities who suffered, but on the whole Australian community. Whether we accept it readily or stubbornly deny it, forced removal policies are a glaring stain on our national identity, and the suffering caused by these policies is far from being limited to the individuals who were directly affected—whole, entire communities were devastated.

The life of a nation is much longer than the lives of its generations. Long after the last person who was forcibly removed from their family as a child has passed away, the harmful effect of these policies on our community will remain. The suffering caused by forced removals manifests itself in many ways in our shared social life; in ways that we can prove and in other ways that we cannot.

The damage to Aboriginal culture as a whole in many ways is untraceable but it is undeniable. We cannot change our history but we can face up to it and we can do what is within our power to both change the way our history is regarded and to ensure that we create a better future, especially for the Aboriginal South Australians who were affected by forced removals, and for their children and their children's children.

Over the past couple of decades, as a society we have taken many steps in the direction of taking responsibility for the wrongs of the past. Twenty-three years ago next month, the then prime minister Paul Keating acknowledged this in his Redfern speech. He said:

We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers.

Prime Minister Keating then established the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. Two days after the Bringing Them Home report was tabled in federal parliament in May 1997, the then South Australian minister for Aboriginal affairs, Dean Brown, led this parliament in saying sorry. He said:

To the children who were taken from their mothers and fathers, to the mothers and fathers who watched in pain as their babies and children were taken from their side or from their schools. To these people, we apologise.

More than a decade passed before the federal parliament did the same thing. Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the nation, in recognising this said:

The hurt, the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental humanity.

That apology had a profound impact on properly acknowledging and recognising the immense pain that these wrongs have caused for those who have suffered and for those who continue to suffer.

Today we take another step in the direction of facing up to past wrongs. The state government has today announced a Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme, including ex gratia payments for members of the South Australian Stolen Generations.

I wish to acknowledge members in this chamber, particularly those who serve on the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee who have championed this cause. I also want to thank the shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, the member for Morphett, Dr Duncan McFetridge. On this and a range of issues, Duncan and I have worked very closely together in a constructive way; a way that I think most people would expect and hope that the political process would usually operate.

Most of all, though, I want to thank members of South Australia's Stolen Generations who have patiently shared their stories, hopes and visions with me this year. Meetings facilitated by the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, meetings with small groups and meetings with individuals have been difficult and emotional but extremely helpful in guiding the development of this scheme. This scheme encompasses some elements found in bills that have previously been introduced and also incorporates elements of the reparations scheme operating in Tasmania.

Under the Next Steps—Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme, South Australian members of the Stolen Generations who were forcibly removed from their parents will be eligible for an ex gratia payment of up to $50,000. An application will be made to an independent assessor and individuals will be able to meet with and speak directly to the independent assessor about their experiences.

Many have told me of the importance for recognition of what happened. The independent assessor will provide advice to the government about the making of a payment and the level of a payment. Any individual who receives an offer will be provided with $1,000 to seek legal advice about whether to accept it. If the offer is not accepted an individual can still pursue legal action through the courts. The scheme will commence operation on 31 March 2016 and individuals will have 12 months in which to apply.

The government has set aside up to $6 million for individual reparations. The second part of the scheme will extend to the broader Aboriginal community, with a $5 million whole-of-community reparations fund. Many members of the stolen generations have made it clear to me that while individual compensation is important, it is not the only, or even the most important element of the next steps.

Although a number of ideas have been put forward already, we will continue to listen to the community on what and how we can best recognise the grief, the loss and the pain whole communities have endured.

No amount of money will ever be enough to undo the wrongs of the past, but it is an important offer we will be making to those members from our community—stolen from their family by past governments—as recognition of these wrongs.

We have said sorry. Now it is time to take the next steps. The next steps to recognising the pain and loss that was caused, the next steps to making South Australia a more inclusive place and the next steps on from saying sorry.