Senator FERRIS (6:13 PM) —Tonight I want to reflect on the very successful Bennelong Society conference which was held at the end of August here in Canberra. I have had the privilege of serving as President of the Bennelong Society for the past 12 months, since the former Indigenous affairs minister Senator Dr John Herron took up his position as Australian Ambassador to Ireland. The Bennelong Society was formed in 2000 to promote debate and analysis of Aboriginal policy in Australia and to inquire into the causes of some of the problems facing Aboriginal people. Indigenous policy debate in Australia is currently going through a very important period, with renewed focus on both Aboriginal self-governance and the need to address both the poor conditions that exist in some Aboriginal communities and the likelihood of a successful outcome for any policy changes that could be made.

Most Australians are aware of the internal upheavals ATSIC has been through in the last 12 months. The federal government's important review of ATSIC will soon be released with proposals for reform of that body. Following a landmark meeting in July between the Prime Minister and Indigenous leaders to discuss the issue of violence and abuse in Indigenous communities—drug and alcohol abuse and, in particular, the tragic consequences of the abuse of women and children—the Prime Minister made a personal pledge to work with state governments to improve conditions for Indigenous people. This government is committed to addressing the problems of passive welfare, violence, and alcohol and sexual abuse that are challenges in remote communities where Indigenous people live.

This year's Bennelong Society conference, with the title An Indigenous future? Challenges and Opportunities, was a timely opportunity to debate and discuss various policy issues. Speakers at the conference came from across the country to present a range of papers on the future of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, land rights, native title and the challenges faced in remote Indigenous communities. The Hon. Philip Ruddock, the former minister for indigenous affairs, opened the conference with his speech on the future of ATSIC as he saw it. The Hon. John Hannaford, one of the three-member ATSIC review panel, set out the perspective he brought to the review of ATSIC, having travelled around the country to numerous Indigenous communities.

The conditions in remote Indigenous communities have been seen by the Bennelong Society as the single most challenging issue facing Indigenous Australia for quite some time. Chris Marshall, who has 30 years of experience working in remote Aboriginal communities, and former minister for Aborigines in the McMahon Liberal government, the Hon. Peter Howson—a long-time contributor to the Indigenous policy debate—both addressed delegates on the problems that exist in remote Aboriginal communities and the possible solutions to these problems.

Chris Marshall argued that a middle ground must be sought between assimilation and separate development. Mr Marshall argued that there is no need to promote assimilation. Even in the most remote communities there is rapid cultural change, and therefore there is a need to support remote Indigenous townships so that the casualty rate of this rapid process of cultural change can be minimised. He argued that remote communities are not a lost cause—there are still a lot of positive things happening in these communities. However, he made the case that the key variable for improvement in remote communities is the ability of the generally non-Indigenous adviser or administrator to facilitate participatory management, community development and community cohesion. There is no doubt that skilled intervention is required. Communities can no longer continue as passive recipients of services. They must be active participants in the planning and implementation of development.

Peter Howson, Vice-President of the Bennelong Society, also outlined to the conference how policies of the last 30 years have failed Aboriginal Australians. Mr Howson argued that the very serious problems that now exist in remote communities had their origin in the policies of the separation of Aboriginal people and the withdrawal of Indigenous advisers from these communities since the early 1970s. Policies that provide and maintain infrastructure in remote communities, in combination with the extensive provision of welfare, have created and sustained what he called ghetto like communities based on welfare dependency. He argued that this must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Former Labor government minister Dr Gary Johns reinforced this message. He called on Aboriginal people to become independent of government, a result that can be achieved only through education. Governments cannot preserve Aboriginal culture and difference. Indeed, he pointed to the polices of separation of land, separation of culture and separation of communities that were promoted by many academics. He argued that this policy had failed. It had failed many Aboriginal people. He said that Aboriginal people must look beyond remote communities to secure their future.

The conference began with a dinner on the evening of Friday, 29 August, at which we were able to honour two of the Ngarrindjeri, so-called dissident, women who exposed the fiction of secret women's business in the early 1990s that resulted in a ban on the construction of a bridge to Hindmarsh Island. Dulcie and Dorothy Wilson were presented with Bennelong medals by the Hon. Ian McLachlan AO, the former defence minister and former federal member for the seat of Barker, which included Hindmarsh Island at the time of the controversy. I take this opportunity to pay tribute once again to the courage these women showed in standing up to great cultural pressures and revealing the truth in relation to secret women's business.

Other issues discussed at the conference included native title and land rights. In the lunchtime address, Mr George Savell, former Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, reflected on his 20 years of involvement in Australia's mining and agricultural industries and on the mining industry's experience of native title and land rights. While expressing a great deal of dissatisfaction with the past operation of the Native Title Act and with what he described as its unworkable processes, Mr Savell did articulate a much more optimistic view for the future operation of the act and its effect on the mining industry. The federal member for Solomon in the Northern Territory, David Tollner, spoke at the conference on the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act of 1976. South Australia's shadow Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert Lawson QC, spoke on the South Australian Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act of 1981. Ray Evans discussed land rights, focussing on the post-Wik and post-Yorta Yorta landscape.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those contributors to the conference, especially those who travelled great distances to come to Canberra to make this year's conference the great success that it was. All papers given at the conference are available on the Bennelong Society's web site, which can be found at www.bennelong.com.au. I urge all Australians interested in Indigenous policy debate to visit the Bennelong Society web site.