Parliament House, Canberra, 15 May 2001

Speech by Senator the Hon. John Herron

Launch of The Bennelong Society Website

Last Saturday week I was watching the Parkinson Show on ABC TV. One of the guests was Goldie Hawn. In the interview she said:

"The internet is a fabulous place---there is room for everyone."

This room includes a space for the Bennelong Society web page.

The need for a space developed because many observers are troubled by the fact that for some years a line of thought has developed in Aboriginal affairs in Australia which is regarded as sacrosanct and any dissent with accepted wisdom is regarded as heresy.

This was brought home to me 5 years ago when I became Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. I freely confessed I knew little about these matters but I was instantly labelled as racist and paternalistic. I had hardly opened my mouth.

Racism was certainly not on my agenda---I had volunteered to work as a doctor for Care Australia in Rwanda---but the accusation of paternalism troubled me until I read that my fourteen predecessors had been labelled paternalistic by the industry that developed around the activists of the past as a result of the imposed paternalism of previous policies.

When I was appointed, I decided to find out the facts first hand and over the 5 year period visited over 300 communities and organizations in urban, regional and remote areas---many on a number of occasions.

I discovered two worlds. On the one hand was the world of media land and academia and on the other the harsh reality of community life---poor educational standards, high unemployment, alcohol abuse, unimaginable family violence and little hope of improvement.

The recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study should be accepted as the final evidence that the policies of the last 34 years have failed. The symbolism of land rights and reconciliation while important to the intelligentsia of the Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra axis has little relevance to the daily grind in communities such as Port Keats, Finke and Yuendemu.

There is some commonality throughout Australia but paradoxes abound. The picture is far more complex than many imagine.

The greatest number of aboriginal people in a city live in Sydney---yet they represent but 9 in 1000 of the population. Canberra has the same ratio and Melbourne has but 3 in 1000 of the population but these 3 cities generate the most debate in the media.

On the other hand it is interesting to note that in the capital cities 90 per cent of aboriginal people under 45 years of age are living with non-aboriginal people---surely practical reconciliation in action.

Mainstream media continues to advocate teaching in aboriginal language. I found the only topic on the agenda when I first met Arnhem Land Elders in 1996 was their desire for their children to learn English so they could read and write in order to communicate with the outside world and get jobs.

I could go on.

Geoffrey Partington has prepared a Paper entitled, "The Origins of the Bennelong Society" and this is available to you today.

The forward is written by Professor Geoffrey Blainey.

The Society was formed as a result of a Workshop held in December last year in Melbourne which was attended by many people experienced in this field.

Father John Leary, Reverend Steve Etherington and Pastor Paul Albrecht as well as Peter Howson and Helen McLaughlin made notable contributions, as did many others such as John Reeves and Gary Johns. Others such as Brother John Pye have provided further information.

The Bennelong Society aims to:

1. Promote examination and analysis of government policy with respect to Aboriginal affairs.
2. Seek to influence public opinion so that prospects for amelioration of the present appalling plight of many contemporary aboriginal people are improved.
3. Hold conferences from time to time and establish and maintain a website on which the proceedings of these conferences, together with other materials, can be published.

It may well be that at times this material will be controversial but surely in the interest of arriving at the truth it is essential that it be considered.

Demonising of dissent from conformity should have no place in a liberal democracy.

Why Bennelong?

He was the first Aboriginal to communicate with the white occupiers of his country and he became an important link between his people and the convict colony of New South Wales from 1789 until his premature death on 3 January 1813.

He attempted to be a bridge between two cultures and two centuries later we are still coming to terms with an understanding.

Judged by today's standards the failure of past policies has resulted in the marginalisation of indigenous people from the social, cultural and economic development of mainstream Australian society. This marginalisation has led to a culture of dependency and victim-hood and has condemned many of Australia's indigenous people to a lifetime of poverty.

It is the aim of the Bennelong Society to provide a constructive dialogue on these matters.

In conclusion I can do no better than quote Nicolas Rothwell who wrote in The Australian newspaper on 5 May:

With such widespread goodwill and enthusiasm for the Aboriginal world alive in mainstream society and such awareness of its plight, it is hard to believe a muscular effective bipartisan effort is really out of the question. But the first step in changing reality is to describe it with merciless accuracy.

We believe this 'merciless accuracy' will be available on our Website and I have much pleasure in launching it today.

Thank you for your attendance.