Speech by Alison Anderson
NT CENTRAL ZONE COMMISSIONER
HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION LAUNCH - SOCIAL JUSTICE AND NATIVE TITLE REPORTS 2001
ARALUEN ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
CENTRE
ALICE SPRINGS
9 AUGUST 2002
Good afternoon
I'd like to welcome the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to Arrernte country. In particular, I welcome Dr William Jonas, the Social Justice Commissioner. We are here this afternoon to launch the Social Justice and Native Title Report 2001.
Each year since 1992 - the Social Justice Commissioner has released a report that bears witness to the ongoing injustice suffered by Indigenous people.
From an Indigenous community perspective no report has produced the changes that are needed. Despite the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Indigenous people continue to be over-policed, the imprisonment rate continues to increase, and more people are dying in custody.
Despite the Bringing Them Home Report documenting the pain of the stolen generation, the government refuses to apologise and courts have failed.
And despite the Mabo and Wik judgments this report shows native title representative bodies continue to be disadvantaged. The limited funding for native title representative bodies has a debilitating effect on the claims process and compromises the ability of traditional owners to negotiate fair and appropriate agreements.
Not surprisingly, Dr Jonas's report asks where to for reconciliation? The government has failed to officially respond to the documents presented during Corroboree 2000 or the final report of the Reconciliation Council. Increasingly I doubt the ability of Australia to reconcile because discrimination and injustice continue to be daily realities for Indigenous people.
We cannot heal our wounds if they keep being opened.
For reconciliation to occur we need 'truth'. The South Africans recognised that reconciliation could only occur if there was a mechanism to talk about what had occurred - to establish the truth.
In Australia the truth has not only been avoided - but often condemned.
So ultimately the value of these reports, like all the other documents on our disadvantage, lies in the future … These reports will testify that governments did indeed know … and that they all failed to act.
I sincerely hope that Dr Jonas' report makes history and that its recommendations are adopted.
Thank you.
