Aboriginal Reconciliation

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Will the minister update the chamber about steps the government has taken recently towards reconciliation with the South Australian Aboriginal community?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for his important question, his interest in this area and his previous long service to bodies like the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. Since colonisation, many governments of all stripes have, in many ways, failed Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities. In the past, there has been a failure to respect, a failure to consult, a failure to include and often a failure to recognise and acknowledge these failures themselves. Policies enshrined in the laws of governments of this nation and its states have all too often ingrained this disadvantage instead of easing it.

Governments in the past have excluded Aboriginal people from participation and decision-making in the development of policies, policies that directly affect lives and the lives of the next generations. In some cases, that was the specific and deliberate motivation of government actions: to break apart legacies and to disrupt and tear apart culture. The harms perpetrated against Aboriginal people and the legacy of hardship and disadvantage that is still strongly endured today, two centuries on, is in my view without a doubt the greatest blight on us as a nation.

We ought to be proud to share this land with the oldest living culture on the planet, yet far too often that is not the case. Only in recent decades, in terms of laws and policies, have governments finally begun to take steps in the direction of respect, recognition and justice for Aboriginal people. In a lot of ways in South Australia, we recognised this earlier than other parts of the nation. We enacted the first Aboriginal land rights legislation in the country. The Aboriginal Lands Trust, which turned 50 last year, now holds more than half a million hectares for the benefit of Aboriginal South Australians.

This was followed by other land rights legislation, like the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act and the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act. Nationally, it is not even a quarter of a century since at last we saw the removal of the legal fiction of terra nullius, the concept that denied tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation and custodianship of this land. Since that Mabo decision we have finally, as we always should have, recognised the legal right of Aboriginal Australians to the land, the waterways and to country. Native title has recognised what Aboriginal people have always known: that this country has been, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

I note that South Australia leads the way in native title recognition. I learned only in the last few weeks that now more than 50 per cent of the state's land mass is recognised through native title determinations. I am also proud that South Australia, in recent times, has led the way on the long road to reconciliation in other areas, to start to recognise and address past wrongs. Last year, we opened our Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme that acknowledges and begins to address the immense suffering caused by the forced removal of Aboriginal children and babies from their families and communities over many decades.

In 2013, this parliament formally recognised Aboriginal people in the state's constitution, fixing a glaring omission in the state's founding document, a humiliation that still exists in Australia's constitution. Nearly a year ago, South Australia became a formal partner to the national RECOGNISE campaign to recognise Aboriginal people as our country's first people in the nation's founding document. In South Australia we have put in place an Aboriginal Regional Authority Policy that has enabled greater self-determination and independent governance, and we can be proud of the steps we have taken in the direction of healing, fairness and justice.

There is an important next step. Australia is the only nation, of those that we compare ourselves to, without a treaty with our first people. In December, I was proud to announce that the state government was to begin the process of putting in place what Aboriginal South Australians have deserved since the very beginning of colonisation: a treaty. It is a crucial step on the long journey towards reconciliation in this state.

If there is one thing that has been proven beyond doubt it is that unless Aboriginal people are fundamentally involved in crafting the decisions that affect their lives, they will not be nearly as effective. That is why, in discussions on the scope and applicability of a treaty in South Australia, Aboriginal people and Aboriginal nations will be involved in the consultations. We have committed, in the Mid-Year Budget Review, $4.4 million to help these consultations and negotiations.

There have been many ideas over the years put forward by Aboriginal people, organisations and nations about what a treaty might look like in South Australia, and indeed what a treaty might look like in terms of a state process and a federal process. Common suggestions have included the need for treaties with individual nations, the desire to be more involved in the design of policies and programs, and being able to use whatever levers the state government has available to promote economic development and independence, but we know that the best results come from Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities being involved at the early stages.

There are many reasons why South Australia needs to go down the process of treaty as our next step. It is a way of formally acknowledging and recognising the cultural authority of Aboriginal nations. It is a way to formally consider and address some of the consequences of colonisation for Aboriginal South Australians. It is another step towards justice for those who have been subject to dispossession and denigration under the laws of our society and its institutions.

We know that there is nothing that any government is capable of doing that can truly right all of the wrongs of the past. Treaty is the next logical and necessary step, and it is a step that is very long overdue. Treaty will enshrine the important responsibilities we have as a state towards Aboriginal South Australians and the way Aboriginal South Australians relate and interact with the state government.

Treaty sends a message to all South Australians that we acknowledge these important responsibilities and we acknowledge the failure to uphold them throughout our history. Treaty will give an important chance to do better by Aboriginal people, communities and nations. I look forward to updating the members of this chamber on this process as it unfolds during the course of this year.