Reconciliation requires Reparations

This was published on ABC Unleashed on 1 June: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2914273.htm

Reconciliation requires reparation

Reconciliation requires reparations. This isn't symbolism or emotion. This is law. It arises out of a recognition that to move forward, injustices of the past must be put right. And this has been part of the message of the Stolen Generations who comprehensively related their stories and losses in the Bringing Them Home report (1997). The report recognised the principle under international law that 'the violation of any human right gives rise to a right to reparations'. This was articulated by the UN Special Rapporteur Theo van Boven and adopted by the UN General Assembly, UN Commission on Human Rights and UN Economic and Social Council. Reparations include restitution of family life; compensation for emotional and economic damage; rehabilitation for medical and psychological harm, guarantees of non-repetition and satisfaction, including an apology, full disclosure of the truth (including in history textbooks), sanctions against responsible persons and commemorations and tributes to victims.

The road to reparations in Australia has been rocky (featuring some big boulders). It was Reconciliation Week 1997 when then Prime Minister John Howard chose to belittle the significance of Bringing Them Home. In his opening address to the Reconciliation Convention PM Howard stated, 'Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies over which they had no control'. In 'acknowledging the blemishes' of Australia's past history, Howard was ruling out an apology and any other form of reparations. The Stolen Generations, which included those who had been removed under discriminatory policies until the 1970s, turned their back on Howard (literally).

More than 10 years later Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations. This set up expectations that further reparations would follow. Rather than turning their back on Kevin Rudd, the Stolen Generations applauded the apology. More than two years later, the Federal Government score card on reparations is underwhelming: apology (tick), rehabilitation measures (pencil tick), non-repetition (question mark) and compensation (big cross).

The first test for the Government would come in the immediate aftermath of the apology. Senator Andrew Bartlett of the Democrats introduced the Stolen Generation Compensation Bill 2008 (Cth). The Bill provided for ex gratia payments of $20,000 for all members of the Stolen Generations, with an additional $3,000 for each year of institutionalisation. It was referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. The vast majority of evidence put to the Committee supported the payments, at least as a starting point. The response by Government and Coalition members of the Committee recommended that the Bill does not proceed and attention be paid to a National Healing Fund to provide health, housing, ageing, funding for funerals and other family support services for members of the Stolen Generations. Essentially the report endorsed the Closing the Gap policy and relinquished its reparatory obligations. Soon after, Greens Senator Rachel Siewert introduced the Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal Bill. This bolder push for an even broader range of reparations has been ignored by the Government.

The lack of attention to reparations for the Stolen Generations was recognised by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, who visited Australia in August 2009. In his draft report on the status of Australian Indigenous rights, released in March 2010, he noted the failure of the Commonwealth Government to provide 'monetary compensation' and that 'significant steps are still needed to implement the 54 recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report and to move towards genuine healing and reparation'. Anaya supported the recommendation of the Human Rights Committee in 2009 that Australia 'should adopt a comprehensive national mechanism to ensure that adequate reparation, including compensation, is provided to the victims of the Stolen Generations policies'.

With few offerings on the compensation policy table, litigation had commenced by the Stolen Generations. After a number of unsuccessful cases, in April 2010 a deceased member of the Stolen Generations victims won his appeal against the South Australian Government in South Australia v Lampard-Trevorrow [2010] SASC 56. After more than a decade of litigation, and after it was too late for the injured plaintiff himself, he was awarded $525,000. The South Australian Government was found to have breached duties to the plaintiff who was removed at the age of 13 months without his parents knowing. Did this signal what each member of the Stolen Generations would have to go through in order to receive compensation?

But just as hopes were wearing thin, the Federal Government planted a new seed on Sorry Day last week. It announced the Stolen Generations' Working Partnership. The Government stated that this was a new strategy based on consultation with Stolen Generations' advocates and involves practical steps to assist the Stolen Generations. These include:

1. Keeping the memory alive, through supporting Stolen Generations to record their experiences and reflections - through diverse media, such as written and oral histories, art, songs and poetry, and funding the National Library to make stories available through online media.



2. Stolen Generations' specific initiatives, such as funding for reunions of Stolen Generations' members with their families, Bringing Them Home counsellors, and community-based initiatives through the Healing Foundation.



3. New responses to emerging needs, involving innovative aged care responses for members of the Stolen Generations.



4. Building capacity and connections with mainstream and other Indigenous services, including 10 scholarships to undertake Certificate II in Indigenous Leadership; providing 'Stolen Generations' training to staff of mainstream services (Centrelink, Homeless Services, Legal Services, etc), and helping police, courts and prisons to provide support to members of the Stolen Generations.

After the announcement last week, how is the Government's scorecard looking? The Australian Human Rights Commission responded by urging the Government to provide a 'reparations package that provides monetary compensation, guarantees against repetition and provides restitution and rehabilitation to the Stolen Generations'. Sound familiar? The Government's announcement was a reiteration of its response to the 2008 Senate Committee Inquiry into the Stolen Generations - based on providing basic services to Indigenous peoples. The Government's Working Partnership does did not provide redress for historical wrongs. Policies for the future cannot remedy harms of the past. Reconciliation requires the ability to look forward and to look backwards. To repair the past and to learn for the future.