Mr LEESER (Berowra) (12:43): I begin by acknowledging this nation's Indigenous people and their 65,000 years of endurance, resilience and wisdom. We recognise the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, on whose lands we gather, and I pay respects to members of the stolen generations who are with us and bring their own stories, experiences and pain to this gathering. You are the living witnesses to the policies that failed, and you inspire us with your indomitable spirit. And I pay tribute to my Indigenous member and senator colleagues and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, who, like her predecessor in that role, I call a friend. This chamber is not only a meeting place; it's a place of memory—of shared national memory. And we're right to remember. We remember almost a century ago, the first time the parliament met in this city, in a building like a small white wedding cake set amongst the fields of grass and dust. At that first gathering of the parliament at Canberra, thousands were invited—thousands and thousands—but not a single Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person—not one. So two Indigenous men, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, took it on themselves to walk to Canberra and let their presence be known. Officialdom tried to turn them away, but the crowd demanded that they stay, and they did. Fair-minded Australians have always been on the side of the person having a go. We remember the actions of that great Yorta Yorta man William Cooper, an organiser, petitioner and agitator for change who spoke up not only for his own people but for others as well. In 1938, he protested the absence of Indigenous members from the parliament, and in December of the same year, after the events of Kristallnacht, he led one of the few protests to the German consulate decrying the prosecution of Jewish people by the Nazis in Germany. We remember the bark petition; the 1967 referendum; the arrival of Neville Bonner in the Senate and Ken Wyatt in the House of Representatives, and so many more since. And on this day we remember the apology: an apology for children taken away from parents, families, community and culture; an apology for the brothers and sisters separated; an apology for the forced relocations away from country; an apology, to use the words from Neville Bonner's maiden speech, to those who 'were shot, poisoned, hanged and broken in spirit until they became refugees in their own land'; an apology for the pain that cascades through the generations; an apology that needs to be repeated again and again, whenever and wherever Aboriginal Australians are denied the same opportunities as their fellow citizens. On days like this, for those of us without a lived experience of dispossession or loss, it's easy to speak of the past and linger there—to linger there because it is easier than confronting the present, to confront the work that we must still do. Kevin Rudd was right when he said, 'It is not sentiment that makes history; it is our actions that make history.' And that demands that we speak of the present and that we speak of the present in terms of a shared accountability. Last Thursday, the Prime Minister said something to me across the dispatch box, and his words have stayed with me all weekend. He said simply, 'The member is a participant and not an observer'—a participant and not an observer. Across too many areas in government, in the bureaucracy, in the parliament and in the media, we've all become observers. Our fears have frozen us: fears about complexity and misunderstanding the interrelationship of difficult and different issues; fears of making bad situations worse; fears about unintended offence and of culturally misreading moments; fears of the stigma we create by highlighting failures. These are the fears we don't talk about but that most of us share. They make us observers, not participants. Senator Nampijinpa Price and the member for Lingiari raised the alarm about Alice Springs in their first speeches months ago—from both sides of the aisle, two Indigenous parliamentarians, participants, who have not been afraid to speak the truth: the truth about alcohol, the truth about violence and the truth about our continued failure as Australians. I pay tribute to their courage. I know it wasn't easy. I say to the Prime Minister: we all have to stop being observers—all of us. Yes, it's right to remember the past. Yes, it's right to want to change the future. But our place is here in the present, and that's where all of us are failing. I've seen the interim report on Closing the Gap and I thank the minister's office for their briefing. On a day when we remember the failed policies of the past, I want to talk about the failed policies of the present. I want to talk about the people living in the towns and the regional areas across Australia and the intertwining of alcohol, violence and community failure. These are not easy topics to talk about. Last week, the report by Dorrelle Anderson, the Northern Territory controller, into Alice Springs was released. It makes for confronting reading, and I want to read you a few lines that cut me to my core. She said: The children who have been spoken to have unanimously voiced their hatred of alcohol and the harm it inflicts on their families. Their simple aspirations are to live in a 'normal place', have jobs when they are older and be able to support their families with basic needs. Let me say it again: The children … voiced their hatred of alcohol and the harm it inflicts on their families— such powerful and simple words. The children are speaking truth to us, and the sad truth is it's not only in Alice Springs. I want to speak about a few other places—places where we must hear the local voices. The member for Leichhardt has told me about failures in places such as Aurukun in his electorate, where school attendance has dwindled and where the local paper says that, despite the presence of 50 police officers, residents are reluctant to leave their homes and those who do often have to arm themselves. The member for Grey has told me about the issues being faced in Port Augusta and in Ceduna. In Port Augusta, there's a large transient population, there's unrest and fear, and shopkeepers are concerned about businesses and personal safety. In Ceduna, where I went on my visit with Senator Liddle just after I became the shadow minister, where the cashless debit card provided a measure of relief, now residents are fearful about the damage being done by alcohol and fearful of speaking out publicly—fearful there might be consequences because they want to restrict the grog. The member for O'Connor has spoken to me about Laverton and Leonora. In Laverton local Indigenous leaders are begging for tougher alcohol restrictions. He told me about Sarah Sullivan, an Indigenous resident who has spoken publicly about how Laverton was a great town when she grew up but how her children are experiencing something terribly different these days—children and adults being chased for money and smokes. Local voices matter, and they're just not being heard. The member for Durack has written to the Prime Minister about the Kimberley, the Pilbara and Carnarvon. The member for Durack has met with a collection of Pilbara organisations that include the Pilbara Aboriginal Health Alliance, the Youth Involvement Council, the Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation, the Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service and the Robe River Kuruma Aboriginal Corporation. They show a deep concern about youth crime and the destructive trail it's leaving. The federal government invests millions in diversionary programs, and we must urgently determine if our investment is fit for purpose and whether those investments are being delivered as intended. The member for Durack says, 'Isolation is a way of life for many in Durack, but now fearful residents are further isolated, bound within their own homes, too scared to leave.' Today, on this anniversary, we must honour the past by answering the failures of this generation towards Indigenous children. The present, in so many regional and remote communities, is terrible. I'm not blaming the Prime Minister or the minister or the state and territory governments. This is a collective failure, and I put my hand up too and share the blame with everyone. Despite the progress in other areas, some of which is reported in today's interim Closing the gap report, this is an Australian failure. It's a shared Australian failure. In all too many places, alcohol is fuelling the most unspeakable crimes against women and children, and this cannot be allowed to continue. That's why I support the Leader of the Opposition's call for a royal commission into the abuse of Indigenous children. In many cases, these are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the stolen generations. The member for Maribyrnong was right to call for a royal commission into aged care—a royal commission that Prime Minister Morrison agreed to. The Prime Minister, when opposition leader, was right to call for a royal commission into veteran suicide. Again, Prime Minister Morrison agreed to it. The Leader of the Opposition is right to call for a royal commission into the abuse of Indigenous children, and the Prime Minister should agree to it as well. Royal commissions are never comfortable—I understand that—but, frankly, they're a whole lot better than facing regional failure after regional failure and simply continuing with more of the same. The Prime Minister and the minister have spoken passionately about the Voice. I share their passion, but it's in our national interest to heed the voices of Indigenous Australians that are speaking now. We must pay attention to the voices that do not already have a platform in Australian public life, and we must heed the cause of children whose simple yearning is for a normal life, the sort of life we'd hope for for any of our own children. If we're to break the cycle, we cannot afford to ignore these voices any longer. So let us use this 15th anniversary of the national apology to recommit ourselves to action—action in partnership with Indigenous communities, with the Coalition of Peaks, with state and territory and local governments and with all Australians of goodwill. Let us all choose to be participants and not observers in the repair of our country and the reconciliation of our nation. Debate adjourned.