Stay Connected

Sign for updates

Bob's speech re indigenous culture + the NT laws

speeches-in-parliament

Bob's speech re indigenous culture + the NT laws

...I want that on the record, so that no-one reading about this moment in history 10, 50, 100 or 500 years from now can say, 'If only they had known what they were doing to Indigenous culture in Australia.' We all know. The government has made its choice. It has the bulldozer; it has the numbers, and we do not. But let nobody in this place say that it did not know what this would do to Indigenous culture, custom, law, language, pride and wellbeing into the future of this nation. And if there has been a measure of what the impact will be, besides selling more paintings to more tourists, which the minister was talking about-but I will not go into that in any length; that is an obvious matter-the government has in this debate made no contribution on that hugely important assessment for the Indigenous people of Australia and this nation. ...I want to make that part of the debate tonight and I want it noted. I want to put it on the record that we all knew that this was going to have a massive impact on Indigenous culture, particularly across Northern Australia where its stronghold exists after the devastating of such culture across southern Australia. Here we go again, but this time many of us care-and this time the eyes are wide open. And the government has made no assessment of the impact... Please see document attached for Bob's speech in full

Authorised and printed by Christine Milne, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600