Senator FERRIS (3:12 PM) —Senator Bolkus has just claimed in his speech that we have been watching a minister under pressure. I would have to say, Madam Deputy President, that I have never seen a minister so in control of his portfolio. The reason is that this minister has been out around Australia: he has not sat in his office, he has visited more Aboriginal communities than Senator Bolkus would have had hot meals. If Senator Bolkus had gone over the Adelaide Hills and actually visited some of the communities that Senator Herron has visited, and that indeed I have visited, he would have found that people in those communities are not talking about this issue; they are actually talking about the issues of concern to them. I would like to report on what they raised with me two weeks ago when I met a large group of them up in the Riverland. They did not talk about this issue; they talked about family violence, drunkenness, alcohol abuse and sexual abuse. They talked about educational opportunities and homelessness. Those are the issues they are talking about on the ground and, if Senator Bolkus and his colleagues went out there and sat down and listened like I did and like Senator Herron does, you would not see people on this side of the parliament under pressure. We are not under pressure, and I am sorry that Senator Bolkus has left the chamber and is not able to hear me make my remarks.

This government and this minister do not deny that past practices led to the separation of many Aboriginal children from their families. I would have to say, whether they are children in the Barnado family resettlement program using children from Britain or whether they are indigenous children, they are all children and the result has been the same. These children need help and they need the recognition that this government has given to them. This minister acknowledges that this has been a blight on our history and has had profound and continuing effects on indigenous people and indigenous communities on a wider scale. We passed the motion of regret last year and we sincerely, each and every one of us, regret that past action. We responded to the Bringing them home report three years ago. We introduced a $63 million package to help separated families to get back together and to deal with the trauma of separation. We have actually taken some steps to introduce these measures. We gave that money to ATSIC to make those reparations and to begin the process of bringing those families back together and dealing with the trauma that individuals still feel. We are also determined to address the continuing legacy of disadvantage that many indigenous people suffer.

There is no doubt that over a period of years these people have carried their secrets. They have grieved in private, and those mothers and fathers who lost their children, who never saw those children again, have also grieved in private. The Bringing them home report brought this out into the open in such a way that this government was able to recognise the problems and deal with the problems. That $63 million is a pretty good example of the sincerity with which this government, the coalition government, has dealt with this problem. This minister has visited communities where he has discussed this issue and I have visited communities where I have discussed this issue, and this is not a high priority issue in those communities. They are actually more worried about family violence. They are actually more worried about the age at which their children are getting involved in the drug scene and that they are leaving home, if they have got a home. Homelessness is a critical issue for Aboriginal communities. Bringing them home will begin to settle these people's secrets down in a more open way and in a more caring way than the opportunities those on the other side of this chamber were ever able to deliver to these people in 13 years. I know that the people that I have spoken to in South Australia, as I go around frequently meeting with indigenous women in particular, understand that this government has been putting its money where its mouth is and this minister's credibility can be measured by it. There is no doubt in my mind that when you get out on the ground it is well recognised. (Time expired)