Mr SNOWDON (11:51 AM) —I want to endorse the comments of my friend the member for Banks in relation to the stolen generation. There are a couple of issues I want to talk about this morning in the context of the government's attitude to indigenous Australians. Its attitude to the stolen generation people is, of course, paramount amongst them. I know the two people who are involved in this case before the court—which has cost us, as the member for Banks pointed out, $6 million as of 1 June. I know Mrs Cubillo and Mr Gunner; they are people like you and me. They are people who have suffered immeasurably as a result of being stolen from their parents as children, yet they are now being forced through a process in the courts where every moment of their lives is under cross-examination by the government's legal counsel.

My friend the member for Banks talked about the attitude of the government towards reconciliation. It seems to me that we have got a pathetic figure for a Prime Minister if he is a person who cannot bring himself to (1) apologise to the stolen generation for the reasons that my friend the member for Banks outlined and (2) pull off the dogs. There is absolutely no need for the malicious and vindictive way in which the government has instructed its counsel to act in this particular case. It is my view that, as we enter the Centenary of our Federation, if we are to be recognised as a mature nation, we must come to terms with the unsavoury aspects of our past, and this is one of the most unsavoury aspects of our past. It is not difficult to come to terms with. We do not have to say that we are individually or even collectively responsible for it, but we do have to understand that this nation has been responsible for it and it was governments that were formed in the House of Representatives and got their mandate from the Australian people that were responsible for oversighting the laws which allowed those people of the stolen generation to suffer.

In that respect, the Prime Minister needs to accept, as a statesman, his role as the Prime Minister of this country; the person whose job it is to safeguard and oversight the integrity of this establishment as the representative body of the people of Australia—the primary policy making body. He needs to accept that his predecessors, Labor and Liberal, were in part responsible for this process and say it on behalf of this nation, the institution of this parliament and the Australian people. Apologising to the stolen generation should not be too much to ask, but apparently it is.

One point I will make is that, if we are to have reconciliation, the beads and mirrors approach of the Prime Minister and his government in the context of reconciliation will not work. If he is not prepared to assess and contemplate the draft statement which was issued by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation on its recent arrangements, then I suggest to him that, instead of going through the masquerade, the charade, of having a committee to go about developing and formulating a set of words which might suit the community—if he in that office downstairs is unable to accept what they produce—he should dispense with the committee. He should say, `I, the Prime Minister, as I have done with the preamble to the Constitution, will be the person who will dictate what goes in this particular document. Never mind the process which we have set up. Never mind having input from the various individuals and organisations who have currently supplied input, I will be the final arbiter. I, the Prime Minister of Australia, will be the final arbiter of what is acceptable.' If that is his approach, then let us just fess up and dispense with all the rubbish and the cost and say to the people of Australia that the reconciliation process is doomed. It is doomed because, while ever he pursues this vendetta against the stolen generation in the way in which it is being done through the Federal Court, and while ever he treats the process of reconciliation with such contempt, that will be the only outcome that is possible. I say to the Prime Minister: it is now time for you to act like a statesman as we enter the Centenary of our Federation. (Time expired)