One hundred years after we started to talk about one nation, Aborigines languish in the corners of Australian society and find themselves exiles within their land, with unacceptable health and education standards, and employment opportunities. The majority of Aborigines live in conditions which no Australian, be they black or white, would ever accept.

Native Title created confusion for many Australians, especially in Western Australia and Queensland. I agreed with the Mabo High Court decision extinguishing the historical fiction of Terra Nullius but remained concerned the legislation as proposed by the government would not provide our First Nation peoples with what the Australian community wanted for them.

It seems almost thirty years later, First Nation peoples still seek the justice they were promised would be delivered by this legislation. This dilemma lead me to write Forgotten People.

I rose in the national parliament after midnight and delivered the following speech to an empty chamber finishing just before 1AM.

This is my address to the national parliament.

This is the Hansard transcript.

Mr EVANS (12.46 a.m.) 

Mr Speaker, nearly 100 years ago our nation’s forefathers devised a constitution to bring together as a federation the states of the Great Southern Land, which we now know as Australia. They enthused over the many benefits that such a federation would bring to this nation. Many times since that historic occasion those benefits have been realised.

Our federation has withstood all attempts to bring it down, from the threat of secession by Western Australia in 1933 to the dark ages of the Whitlam years in the 1970s. Australia, with its many natural and economic wonders, has taken its place as one of the leaders of the Pacific region and is regarded within international forums with respect for its initiatives and rapid development during this century.

Australia—its people, its institutions and its history—is renowned for its fairness and lack of conflict when allowing its people to accommodate those at a disadvantage within the community. We are a nation of supportive people, willing to act to halt any oppression. We have done so proudly many times in our history.

Yet never before in our nation’s history has the very foundation of our systems, our heritage and our peaceful enjoyment of our country, been under greater threat than now with the introduction of the Native Title Bill. One hundred years after our country’s leaders brought us together as one nation we have a Prime Minister (Mr Keating) determined to tear us apart. The threat to our great nation now is the insistence of the Prime Minister—intent on taking his place in history—on tearing up our history, its evolution and the prosperity it has brought to all of us. The Native Title Bill is an act of community division.

Since settlement, Australian Aborigines, our nation’s indigenous people, have been treated with discrimination and have been crippled by the chains of segregation throughout the period of civilisation of this land. One hundred years after Federation, Aborigines lead a lonely life of poverty in a vast country of wealth. One hundred years after we started to talk about one nation, Aborigines languish in the corners of Australian society and find themselves exiles within this land, with unacceptable health and education standards and employment opportunities. The majority of Aborigines live in appalling conditions which no Australians, be they black or white, should ever accept.

In his speech delivered in Redfern last year, the Prime Minister signed a promissory note to the Aboriginal people to which every Australian was made to feel obligated to pay. This note was a promise that white Australia would guarantee equal rights to those indigenous people seeking liberty from the shackles of white man’s paternalism, offering the pursuit of happiness through the recognition of their culture and heritage.

It is obvious tonight as we debate this bill that the Prime Minister and his government have defaulted on this debt and, in return, have placed a blank cheque on the table. But that cheque should be marked `insufficient funds’ because it is a bad cheque. This bill is bankrupt of the justice, equity and human rights which the Prime Minister so comprehensively promised last year.

This bill provides no hope to the Aborigine, nor does it allow white Australia to recognise the Aborigine’s rights as determined by the High Court. Most Australians love their country, and although Aborigines surely love their country they love their land even more. It has been suggested by those opposite that we Australians will not enjoy the tranquillity of our country until the Aborigine is granted native title rights. The winds of change on this issue shake the very foundation of our country’s federation and will do so until the light of recognition comes from the bright day of justice for our indigenous people. But this bill does not provide such justice.

I suggest to those opposite: let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for justice in relation to the Aboriginal people by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred which this bill will no doubt bring to many Australian people. We must forever conduct our struggle with this debate on the high plane of dignity and discipline. Let us all rise to heights greater than those brought about by the introduction of this bill. Justice Brennan in his judgment said:

There is a need for the community generally to develop its own thinking and to reach a moral consensus as to the appropriate balance in land use and management. Only then will the Mabo decision be the opportunity for a just and proper settlement for all Australians and not just for those Aborigines not yet dispossessed of their lands

This Native Title Bill will not provide the justice of which the government speaks. It will increase division within the Australian community and it will eventually come back as a backlash to those who support it.

We can never accept the brutality imposed upon the Aborigine and the unspeakable horrors of last century. We can never accept the missionary policies of earlier this century where the families of Aborigines were separated and the policies of integration destroyed many Aboriginal cultures. We can never accept the ongoing cultural reduction that the Aborigine is subjected to. We can never accept the lack of employment opportunities for the Aborigine. We can never accept the poor standards in health, education and welfare currently endured by our indigenous people.

We must never be satisfied. We must never be satisfied with the way in which the people of Australia, black and white, have allowed the conditions of our indigenous people to fall below those acceptable anywhere in our country. Over $1.3 billion is spent within the area of Aboriginal affairs policy each year, but still we do not address the immediate issues of our indigenous people. No black person should ever talk about social justice for his or her people when the continuing demands of fringe dwellers are not being met by him or her or others associated with this expenditure.

I recently visited the community of Ninga Mia in Kalgoorlie to see the poorest area of Australia that I have ever seen. Where are those Aboriginal leaders demanding justice through this bill who allow such a community to exist without adequate basic human rights when $1.3 billion annually is spent? This bill will not solve the social justice matters so many demand, and any connection with this issue to this bill is a formula for division because this bill does not provide for these justice issues.

I remind those who doubt the coalition’s integrity on Aboriginal affairs issues that the coalition has a good record on Aboriginal affairs. It was the coalition that initiated and carried out the full citizenship referendum for indigenous Australians. It was the coalition that provided broad increases in grant programs for indigenous Australians. It was the coalition that established the Aboriginal affairs department and the Council for Aboriginal Affairs. It was the coalition which was the first to endorse and elect an Aboriginal member of parliament. It was the coalition that initiated the land rights act.

The coalition has always had a clear and comprehensive attitude to attainment of social justice for our indigenous people, and it is wrong for speakers opposite to imply that we are racist and scaremongers. Our conscience is clear on this matter, for we support the existence of native title as defined by the High Court whilst recognising that Aboriginal people have rights of traditional land use—something which this legislation does not address. It misses the point of what traditional use is all about. It believes it to be freehold title when in fact it is native title allowing and recognising traditional use.

The coalition supports the ongoing non-discriminatory use of the federal Racial Discrimination Act. The coalition reaffirms the securing of existing title and we assert the rights of states to manage land title. This government bill is bankrupt. It is bankrupt of creativity. It is bankrupt of simplicity. It is bankrupt of compassion and promotes division amongst all Australians.

This bill will ensure that no-one will be satisfied with it. It will create division amongst white and black Australians, it will create division amongst the Aboriginal community and it will create division within industry and farming interests. It is proposed by those that do not understand the complexity of Australia and this great land. It is proposed by people who do not understand the differences between the peoples of Australia and the variances of its land. It is developed by those that would have Australians turn against Australians and it is proposed by those that would have the federation crumble to its knees.

This bill does not address the High Court decision as it goes beyond the principles of the judgment. It discriminates against the traditional use requirements of Aborigines and will create more heartache and long-term division amongst Australians than is necessary. This bill will not bring Australians together as our forefathers would have had us do. It is a complex formula for trouble which is the base of this government and the Australian Labor Party—the party of rhetoric and inactivity on the real issues of our community.

Reconciliation will not come from this bill. Reconciliation will be put back to the end of the issues of importance because of this bill. I am mindful when I say these things that the Aboriginal community is keen to realise some sort of justice from this bill, to satisfy the trials and tribulations which Aborginal people have endured. Some Aborigines want the right of self-determination and some want the persecution of past ages to be recompensed. These people who want justice cry out for the fulfilment of their dreams, to reach the heights of their community goals and to provide their people with the very necessary justice so many Australians want for them.

This bill will not provide it. It will destroy dreams, it will create division and it will increase racial intolerance to new levels where the very basis of the Australian compassion will be placed at risk. Why? Because it is wrong. It is impractical and will provide nothing but a complex legal industry which will drive those smaller investors in Australia to other parts of the world more willing to accept their investment. It will not help social justice for Aborigines and it will put back the reconciliation process.

The coalition has a faith in the Australian people. It has a faith that reconciliation with our indigenous people will happen. It has a faith that the unacceptable conditions of many of our Aboriginal people will be overcome. It has a faith that true freedom for the Aborigine will be achieved. It has a faith that all Australians, be they white or black, Christian or not, will join together and say without any reprisal, `I love my country, I love my land and I love my people’. This bill does not provide this. For this reason, I cannot support the discriminatory and divisive bill called the Native Title Bill.

Debate (on motion by Mr McLeay) adjourned.

House adjourned at 12.58 a.m. (Wednesday)

Postscript

It is fair to say that since the enactment of the Native Tile legislation there has been plenty of talk, plenty of talk and advisory groups established, plenty of frustration, plenty of angst, plenty of disappointment, plenty of wasted funds, plenty of politics, but very little sustainable outcomes.

It is also fair to say that politics within the First Nation leaders and politics within the national and state parliaments provide little for reconciliation. It’s tragic we don’t have the leadership which can provide a healing, a recognition of sovereignty and allow those in need to step forward and close the gap in opportunity and outcomes.