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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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ABORIGINAL EQUALITY

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:43): I move:

That this house, whilst acknowledging the challenges involved in bridging the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, nonetheless celebrates the many positive developments and achievements of recent years.

This is a subject about which I am very passionate. Slightly digressing for a moment, I visited the State Library during a lunchbreak this week and came across a volunteer. I will not use her name because I do not think that is fair or appropriate. This person migrated here from Scotland and we started talking about that and she said, 'I'm not an Australian citizen.' In my usual way, I tried to encourage her to become one. She said, 'I'm not becoming one until Aboriginal people are treated equally and fairly.' I thought that was a fairly sobering reminder.

According to this lady, she still sees plenty of examples of racism and discrimination against Aboriginal people. I said to her, 'Why not become an Australian citizen and help change things for the better?' Anyway, I pass that on as an interesting reflection from someone who will not become an Australian citizen until such time as Aboriginal people, in her view, are treated with respect and as genuine equals.

I have mentioned before in this house my association with many Aboriginal people over time. I went to Goodwood tech with an Aboriginal lad, Graham McKenzie. I believe he is still alive. I have not seen him since those days at school. I believe he may live around the Murray Bridge area. We had a lot to do with Aboriginal people who were at Colebrook Home on Shepherds Hill Road. Matron Lovey Bond was in charge and we knew the people there and used to mix with them. We thought nothing about it, and the fact that they were Aboriginal made no difference to us.

Fortunately, I grew up in a home where, despite some faults, my father—a Barwell boy who came out from England when he was 16–and my mother readily accepted Aboriginal people into our home. These included Lowitja O'Donoghue and Faith Coulthard—both of whom were nursing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the time, and were often subjected to inappropriate behaviour—but as a kid with Lowitja and Faith, mixing with my older sister, Pat, we did not think anything of it. They were a couple of people coming to our place to spend time there. Looking back, in some ways it indicates that my parents were certainly progressive.

Over time, I have had dealings with a lot of other Aboriginal people. I have mentioned in here that my niece fosters two Aboriginal boys. She has had them since birth. She is not allowed to adopt them under the rules of Families SA, but apparently in Victoria you can. She has put a lot of time and effort into these boys—both of whom call her mum, and both of whom suffer from foetal alcohol disabilities. Nevertheless, my niece has done a fantastic job in helping raise those lads.

More recently, the son of a very close friend of mine, who is a very senior police officer, married an Aboriginal person and they now have, I think, three children. To show how things are changing—because in Aboriginal culture there is a view that a baby and a child belongs to everyone, which I think is a great concept—when the first baby was born, it was taken to its mother's Aboriginal community, where it was passed around and everyone was able to acknowledge that the baby was part of the Aboriginal community. It highlights the fact that things are changing. There is still a long way to go but things are changing.

I will bring members back to something that happened before any of us were around. On 28 December 1836, the proclamation of South Australia was signed by John Hindmarsh. The proclamation relates to Aboriginal people, and I will not quote it all, but it states:

It is also, at this time, especially my duty to apprize the Colonists of my resolution, to take every lawful means for extending the same protection to the Native Population as to the rest of His Majesty's Subjects, and of my firm determination to punish with exemplary severity, all acts of violence or injustice which may in any manner be practised or attempted against the Natives, who are to be considered as much under the safeguard of the law as the Colonists themselves, and equally entitled to the privileges of British subjects. I trust therefore, with confidence to the exercise of moderation and forbearance by all classes, in their intercourse with the Native Inhabitants, and that they will omit no opportunity of assisting me to fulfil His Majesty's most gracious and benevolent intentions towards them, by promoting their advancement...

And so it goes on. We know in South Australia that, traditionally we have not always lived up to the expectations and the exhortations in that proclamation but from the earliest days, South Australia has done, and has tried to do many positive things in relation to Aboriginal people. In 1858, Aboriginal men were given the vote in South Australia, and in 1894 Aboriginal women were given the vote, at the same time as European women. Sadly, when it came to Federation, those voting rights were taken away from Aboriginal people because the other states would not agree.

In the lead-up to the formation of the Federation, a South Australian delegate to the Constitution Convention, Robert Caldwell, was arguing for Aboriginal people to be counted and also for their right to vote. I do not think he was trying to be funny with his pun, but he said:

...one of the black spots of the Bill. There were many aborigines on the electoral roll who were intelligent men and to exclude them from the census was an insult.

As I said, I do not think he was trying to engage in a pun there. The point is that South Australia has a record of being not perfect but better, I think, than the other states in terms of recognising Aboriginal people. It was not until 1962 that Aboriginal people throughout Australia were given the vote and, in 1967, they were recognised as full citizens and treated as full citizens.

This motion is about the positives, but we still need to touch on some of the negatives that exist, and this is not a negative but a fact: as at 30 June 2006, in South Australia, 28,055 people designated themselves to be Indigenous, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, or one or other of those two groups, and that was out of a population of 1,567,888 at that time. In other words, the Aboriginal population in South Australia is relatively small, as it is indeed throughout Australia. In fact, for the whole of Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population amounts to about 2½ per cent. That is important and significant but, in the context overall, not a very high percentage of the population.

In terms of negative aspects, and this is about Bridging the Gap, in 2005-07, life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was estimated to be 67.2 years, 11½ years less than for non-Indigenous males. The life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females at the same time was 72.9 years, 9.7 years less than for non-Indigenous females.

If you look at a range of other issues, not just health but education and so on, I could list quite a few of the differences. But what I want to highlight are some of the changes for the better that have been occurring. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander full-time students who are staying at school until year 12 year has been increasing, and for year 10 and beyond it has also been increasing. To give an example, in the first year of secondary school to year 10, the retention rate rose from 83 per cent in 2000 to 96 per cent in 2010, and at the year 12 level the increase was 36 per cent to 47 per cent. There is still a long way to go, but it is getting better. There is a gap in terms of Aboriginal people completing schooling: 47 per cent compared with 79 per cent for non-Aboriginal people. So, there is still a way to go. But things are changing.

In 2008, 40 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 25 to 64 had attained a non-school qualification, up from 32 per cent six years earlier, another positive move forward. With regard to higher education, at the same time one in six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had attained a bachelor degree or above, 14 per cent had attained an advanced diploma, or diploma, and 61 per cent had attained a certificate—certificate III, certificate IV, that type of thing—which is issued by TAFE and private providers. So, things are improving.

In terms of employment, in 2008, just over half of Aboriginal people aged 15 to 24 were either working or studying full-time, or working and studying, up from 47 per cent in 2002. It is not a dramatic jump, but it is an improvement. The unemployment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders fell from 23 per cent in 2002 to 17 per cent in 2008. Again, not a big jump, but still good. So, some of those positive statistics continue.

It is an unusual statistic but the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who lived in households that had run out of money for basic living expenses decreased from 44 per cent in 2002 to 28 per cent in 2008. I thought that seemed a little bit of a cheeky question for someone to be asking Aboriginal people, but there is obviously an improvement in that issue. Life expectancy is showing an increase for Aboriginal people, but there is still a gap, as I indicated earlier.

I want to touch quickly on some individuals who have achieved—and I cannot list them all. I mentioned earlier on Lowitja O'Donoghue. We now have at the Adelaide University a young woman who has been nominated as a Rhodes Scholar, and she is just one of many who have achieved. I notice in the paper today that Aboriginal author Kim Scott won the Miles Franklin Award yesterday. He is another person who has been very successful.

I will mention some of these people: Vincent Buckskin, otherwise known as Jack, who is a Young Achiever; Wade Thompson, who is another Young Achiever; Jessica Parker; Jessica Smith; Chris Wilson, who is doing a PhD in archaeology at Flinders University; Megan Davis, who is the first Aboriginal woman to be appointed to the UN; Ken Wyatt, who is the first Aboriginal MP in the House of Representatives, as a Liberal member.

Mr Pengilly: As was Neville Bonner.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: Yes, Neville Bonner. There are so many on this list: Professor Buckskin at the David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education, the list goes on and on.

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (11:58): I indicate that the government supports this motion and I thank the member for Fisher for drawing attention to some of the ways in which we are slowly bridging the gap. The South Australian government, together with the commonwealth government, has committed to bridging the gap, or closing the gap, through a series of national agreements and national partnership agreements.

The National Indigenous Reform Agreement outlines six targets and 27 performance indicators to close the gap. Targets cover a range of areas: life expectancy; health, early childhood education; secondary education; and employment. These targets are ambitious and challenging. In June 2011, the first NIRA Performance Report was released. Its intention is to measure the progress against the targets at a jurisdictional level. The report identifies that not only are there challenges in meeting the targets but also there are challenges in measuring and capturing progress against those targets within existing data limitations.

It is important that these difficulties do not distract us from our shared goal and the continuing effort to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people across a range of social determinants. As the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation acknowledges these gaps, on her behalf I would like to bring to the attention of the house some achievements in this area that are cause for celebration.

A number of these achievements have been sourced from data reported in 2010. A snapshot of South Australian successes, cited in the NIRA Performance Report 2009-10, reveals:

historical data shows that Indigenous mortality rates in South Australia have decreased significantly between 1991 and 2009;

between 2007 and 2009 child mortality rates decreased significantly;

between 2008 and 2009 NAPLAN data showed that in South Australia the gap significantly decreased between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students at all year levels who were at or above the minimum standard in reading; and

apparent retention rates of Indigenous students have increased in South Australia.

Other achievements are not quantifiable in terms of data, and their impact may not be immediately apparent but they deserve recognition and commendation nonetheless for their longer-term contribution to closing the gap. Indeed, in South Australia the government has committed to a range of strategies and programs to work more broadly towards bridging the gap.

Some of these relate to increasing participation, visibility and engagement of Aboriginal people at the senior level. To further this, the government has established the permanent South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council to advise government on key issues relating to Aboriginal affairs. This government has also appointed two commissioners for Aboriginal community engagement—one male, one female—providing a high level voice and advocacy for Aboriginal people in both government and community.

The government has also appointed two Aboriginal women to the Premier's Council for Women. Other important achievements include the ongoing review of the Aboriginal Heritage Act, which is being prepared for cabinet and which will work to close the gap through the recognition of cultural heritage and placing Aboriginal people at the heart of decision-making about their heritage.

Implementation of the Remote Service Delivery Strategy and agreement on Local Implementation Plans in Amata and Mimili are also significant. Further of great importance is the implementation of the Food Security Strategy on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands to improve access to food. The building of three permanent police stations and extra housing for police and child protection workers in Mimili, Amata and Pukatja is, again, significant.

The cross-government agreement on implementation of placed-based initiatives to close the gap in Port Augusta and northern Adelaide through Aboriginal community-driven change is yet another move that indicates the government's commitment to closing the gap. We acknowledge that much hard work lies ahead for South Australia to meaningfully bridge the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

I thank the member for Fisher for this opportunity to share the government's official actions in relation to closing the gap, or at least some of them. We all know that it is up to all of us to take initiatives to close the gap, and I am pleased to report on some of the events in my area during Reconciliation Week, which, of course, is a very important step in our community for recognising the Aboriginal people as the original owners of our land and recognising that they have not always been treated well—in fact, they have generally been treated pretty badly.

One of the events I attended during Reconciliation Week was an assembly at Christies Beach High School, which was supported by some very moving addresses about what reconciliation can mean, and the need for us to think of reconciliation in our personal lives every day. I also had the opportunity to try some kangaroo-tail soup and some kangaroo sausages prepared by members of the local Aboriginal community.

The Onkaparinga council staged a reconciliation event outside Colonnades, where both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people could come to gain information about community services and activities involving Aboriginal people. In this regard, I want to particularly thank and congratulate the Onkaparinga Rugby Union Football Club, who had a stall there promoting their women's team. I was able to meet a couple of the Aboriginal women who play on their team, and really enjoy the opportunity to get out there, get down and get dirty, and get a bit rough, as part of their team's activity.

Pimpala Primary School held a superb event where they had a range of special activities, including Aboriginal dance, boomerang and spear-throwing demonstrations, painting river stones, rainbow serpent, friendship bands, hand cut-outs, boomerangs and paper woven baskets, dreaming stories, cooking and games. From looking at the photos, the enjoyment of the children in learning some Aboriginal dance is quite evident, and their happiness in participating in this community event is their on their faces.

At O'Sullivan Beach Primary School, there was also an important event, where all the Aboriginal children in the school were provided with a certificate of recognition of their membership of their school, and their valued membership as part of the school community. We also had singing and dance activities, with about 100 children all trying to learn a Tiwi Island dance, which was something to behold. But, order was restored after the great enjoyment that the children obviously had, from participating in that event.

I think another mark that our community recognises that we do have to work to close the gap was the attendance at the Don Dunstan Foundation's Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration recently. That event was absolutely packed; there was no standing room left, and to look at the range of people participating in the event it showed how well-entrenched all groups in the community are finding the need to recognise that we have to do better in terms of closing the gap with Aboriginal people.

There were young people, there were old people, there were well-dressed people, there were people who did not look so well dressed and, importantly, there were Aboriginal people. The orator was Paul Keating, who gave some important insights into the events that lead to the Mabo legislation, and I think it needs this retrospective for us to understand how significant that legislation was in determining the course of Australia's judicial processes, our lands processes and, very particularly, our recognition of Australia's first people.

Time expired.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (12:09): I certainly stand to support the member for Fisher, and all others who support his motion. We have come a long way—that is not, for a moment, to try to indicate that the job is done, or that there are not still great difficulties being faced, but certainly in Australia and in South Australia we should be proud that we have made significant achievements in this area.

I have a view that reconciliation and, particularly, closing the gap (which is what the member for Fisher's motion is about) has a lot more to do with individual's hearts and minds than it has to do with institutions. We need institutions to establish some guidelines and some resources, and we will not succeed without that, but the reality is that until a willingness to succeed in this area is not deep and genuine in people's hearts and minds we will not achieve what we need to achieve.

I would also like to point out too that, with regard to closing the gap, a couple of years ago—and I assume the statistics are very similar—the difference in the life expectancy rate between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia was 17 years and the difference in the life expectancy rate between rural and urban people (regardless of their race) in Australia was also 17 years and I think that is a very fair thing to put on the record.

However, we are here to talk about closing the gap for Aboriginal people which is one of the greatest challenges that we face in our state and our nation. It has a lot to do with opportunities. I mentioned institutions before, and institutions play a great role with regard to providing opportunities, but people need to take opportunities as well. That is a very important part of this issue and I believe that an important step towards closing the gap is that, in our society, Aboriginal people have the health, the confidence, the information, the ambition, the desire and lots of other things for them to take the opportunities that exist for them.

I think that is incredibly important because providing opportunities is not enough. People should take the opportunities as well and I think that will be very important. This is everybody's responsibility. It is the responsibility of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people jointly to progress this issue, so that we all live in a society which we would like to live in and which we think is important.

Integration is an interesting aspect of this issue and it is also quite a delicate one. You will find some people who are completely supportive of the issues that the member for Fisher raises and also people who are not supportive of it, but each group will also be divided about integration. Some are keen for integration and some are not. At the end of the day that is a very personal issue. I believe that all opportunities, whether they concern health, employment or social issues, should be available for everybody.

I also think there is no better example of a healthy society and the sort of society which I would like to be in than one which has couples and families from all sorts of racial backgrounds, whether they be different cultures, different races or whatever. You do not choose your partner, you do not choose your family by their racial background: it is about who you love and what you have in common. I think a wonderful example of progress is when you see Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people join together in immediate family. I think that is an outstanding thing that I am fortunate enough to see quite often throughout the electorate of Stuart.

This issue is part of a broader multicultural debate. I think, for us in Australia, it is the most important part of the multicultural debate, but the issues are very similar in terms of making sure that opportunities are given to and taken by everybody who can and who wants them in our society. I was fortunate enough to spend much of my teenage life living in Washington DC in the United States. I was also fortunate enough to be very healthy and sport crazy through my high school years and into my university time. I still could be described that way but I am not nearly as active a participant as I used to be.

I would like to say that sport is one of the very best ways for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to interact. It is certainly not the only one; there are many others, but sport is a tremendous thing. It is not because of the sport; it is because there is a team aspect. I am talking particularly about team sports because, in individual sports, there is no integration or joint participation, but, with a team sport, the team unites to address a common challenge. It is hard work.

It is hard work to become good at sport. You need skill, you need talent, you need to rely on each other and you need to do a lot of training, and it is that sort of thing that I believe will make an enormous difference to closing the gap, and not just in sport. When people, whether they are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal—and ideally both together—combine to jointly address significant challenges, some of the difficulties go out the window because you have common goals and common issues that you are trying to address and common successes that you want to share, and I think that is a very important issue.

Along that multicultural theme, I think it is also worth pointing out that every single one of us in Australia is a migrant, including Aboriginal people. Tens of thousands of years ago, Aboriginal people migrated to our continent, then there was a huge gap until a couple of hundred years ago when other people from the rest of the world started migrating to our country.

I am connected with migration myself. My father was a Dutch migrant who married a girl whose family had been in Australia for quite a long time. My wife's father was an Italian migrant who married a girl whose family had been in Australia for quite a long time. I like the term that Aboriginal people in Australia and South Australia were the First Australians. They are not the only Australians, but they should have a very proud place in their hearts and their minds that they were the First Australians here on our continent.

Closing the Gap is critical. As I said, it is the most important part of multiculturalism, because it affects people's health. There are many statistics, but that statistic about life expectancy is so vital, so poignant and so important to all of us that we have to work on closing that gap. As the member for Fisher said, we have come a long way, but not nearly far enough. We need to keep working very hard on this issue.

I also take this opportunity to say that often the country and the outback areas of our state are unfairly maligned. There is an assumption that in the city communities are more open and more multicultural and that in the country people start to separate out. I would like to say that that is actually not the case. I highlight the outback town of Marree as a place that I visit very regularly, which is a tremendous example of Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal and, indeed, people of Afghan descent living very well and very cooperatively together. If people, regardless of their racial background, get on with the job, want to contribute, and are honest, genuine members of the community, then they get on, and the community of Marree does extremely well in that way.

I express one bit of disappointment, that the government has chosen that this year's parliamentary sitting schedule will clash with NAIDOC Week. The government has scheduled estimates and parliamentary sitting throughout NAIDOC Week. I think that is an unfortunate situation, because it will certainly limit members of parliament being able to participate in NAIDOC Week celebrations and prohibit country members of parliament from participating in NAIDOC Week celebrations. That is a bit of a shame but, nonetheless, I do accept and appreciate the government's sentiments on this issue, as expressed by the member for Reynell.

I genuinely hope that the government's Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, the Hon. Grace Portolesi, will come down here and support this motion in person herself.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would just respectfully remind the member for Stuart that we do not tend to reflect on the whereabouts or not of a member of parliament because, technically, we are all here. I know that we might not all be here, but technically we are all here.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. As a first-term member, I appreciate that and I am happy to change my remarks from 'come down here to support this motion' to 'speak in support of this motion'.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You are indeed generous and courteous; well said.

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (12:19): I also rise to support this motion and to reiterate a few of the comments that have already been made this morning. The member for Stuart said that closing the gap starts in people's hearts and minds, and he is correct. We all need to play our part in closing the gap.

The member for Reynell spoke about some events that she went to during Reconciliation Week in the schools in her area. Similarly, I was at Noarlunga Downs Primary School for the opening of their fantastic new Building the Education Revolution gymnasium during Reconciliation Week, with my federal counterpart Amanda Rishworth, the member for Kingston. We were there and saw some fantastic displays of Aboriginal singing and performance from the local students, which was quite breathtaking. What we have seen with this generation over the past 10, 15 or 20 years is that through our education system students are learning about closing the gap, perhaps more so than previous generations in many parts of South Australia.

In that same week, I was in Oodnadatta opening a new medical facility which the state government has spent $800,000 on. It was terrific to have the students from the Oodnadatta Aboriginal School along for the opening. They had all made posters which were stuck over the front of the new medical centre. They were so well behaved and fantastic, sitting through speeches at the opening, that I asked them if I could go and visit their school later on.

I went to the school and was very pleased to see them learning Spanish and having a great time on their computers. There are computers there for all of the students. The senior students were in Adelaide having a careers week, visiting Adelaide and learning things about city life, because Oodnadatta is one of the most remote places in South Australia.

A few days after that I was at Noarlunga Downs Primary School and I saw all the great work they had done on reconciliation. I suggested that the two schools link up through the computers at both schools to become email friends. I am sure the Oodnadatta Aboriginal School students can tell the students at Noarlunga Downs a lot about the desert and desert life, just as the students at Noarlunga Downs can explain city life and life close to the beach.

The member for Stuart also mentioned sport as a great area for closing the gap. We need to pay tribute to people like Kevin Sheedy. When he became coach at Essendon there were no Aboriginal players and he asked why. He did not get any satisfactory answers, so he demanded that the talent scouts and the football manager put up Aboriginal players to be included in the squad at Essendon. One of the reasons Essendon has been so successful, and was so successful under Kevin Sheedy's leadership, is that they have so many Indigenous players on their list.

We saw that continue with one of Kevin Sheedy's assistants, Mark Williams, when he moved over to Port Adelaide. Some of the Port Adelaide players, such as Gavin Wanganeen and Che Cockatoo-Collins, have become—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Excuse me, member for Mawson, there does seem to be an awful lot of background noise in the chamber. It would be terrible if we did not hear everything the member for Mawson had to say.

Mr BIGNELL: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Some of the noise may have been from my colleagues who are giving me some assistance—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It was.

Mr BIGNELL: —with some additional names. Che Cockatoo-Collins and Gavin Wanganeen are just two of the many great ambassadors who, even after their football days are over, are out in the schools and in the community pushing the concept of closing the gap. I thank the member for Fisher for bringing this motion forward, and I support it.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (12:23): I thank members for their support. I realise that a motion in itself will not change the world, but I think we have a lot to celebrate, and I mentioned earlier Rebecca Richards, who is the young Aboriginal woman from the University of Adelaide who was awarded a Rhodes scholarship.

It is important that we focus on positives and that we do not become obsessed and bogged down with things that may not be at the level we want to achieve what we may wish for. As the member for Stuart said, the fact that we are seeing more examples at the personal level of people marrying people from an Aboriginal background and vice versa I see as a very positive thing. Years ago that would never have happened: someone like my mate's son, as I say, a senior police officer, marrying an Aboriginal person would have been extremely rare, if it ever happened.

The daughter of a friend of the family recently married an Aboriginal lad, a member of the Kaurna tribe, doing law at Adelaide University. That sort of development—evolution in terms of relationships—is a great thing. It shows that, as a society, we are maturing and able to accept people irrespective of race, religion or whatever. To discriminate against people on the basis of race is probably the most evil form of all discrimination; it certainly ranks amongst the worse type of discrimination.

In highlighting some individuals there is always the obvious danger that you leave out a lot of fantastic Aboriginal people who did not get a mention. I could list many people: John Moriarty (I went to Flinders University with him) is a very successful Aboriginal businessman and runs a design company making clothing. Many members in here have probably bought some of his products.

There are plenty of examples if we look in the sporting arena. The member for Mawson would know them off the back of his hand. You only have to look at the AFL, and those of us who love it know the number of people of Aboriginal background playing footy. They make a fantastic contribution to the game that many of us regard as the best game in the world.

We are reaching a point where, whilst we need to reduce the gap, we should also celebrate that our society is moving forward. Probably, for much of our history, we did not meet the expectations in the proclamation that was read out back in 1836. However, South Australia should try to be a leader and set the standard in terms of how we relate to Aboriginal people given, as I said earlier, that we gave the vote to Aboriginal men in 1858 and Aboriginal women in 1894. That was a reflection of our society recognising Aboriginal people as being able to make a contribution.

We were the first in Australia, I believe, to allow Aboriginal people to give evidence in court and to be accepted as equals. That was a long time ago. There have been a lot of other pioneering developments, including land rights in South Australia; many things that we as a society can be proud of. However, as I am only too eager to acknowledge, we still have a long way to go.

As in the case of discrimination against women, hopefully we will get to a point where gender is no longer an issue and race is no longer an issue, and it is not even worthy of a motion in parliament other than to reflect on a positive aspect. I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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