Mr DUTTON (Dickson—Leader of the Opposition) (12:23): I thank the Prime Minister for his heartfelt words on a very important topic. I join him in acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and also acknowledge the presence in the gallery of Minister McCarthy, former minister Burney, shadow ministers Senator Nampijinpa Price and Senator Kerrynne Liddle, and other Indigenous members of parliament. I acknowledge them all as being very important contributors to this debate now and into the future. This Thursday marks the 17th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, but today, as a parliament, we dedicate time to reflect on the anniversary. On behalf of the coalition, I extend a warm welcome to Pat Turner and Scott Wilson from the Coalition of Peaks and thank the organisation for its work. I also acknowledge those members of the stolen generations and their families who are watching this broadcast from home, and I pay my respects to those members of the stolen generations who are no longer with us. In remembrance, we honour their memories. To understand history is to appreciate that no country has an unblemished past. But what distinguishes Australia from many other countries is that, among our overwhelming achievements as a nation, we do not shy away from our dark chapters. We have accepted those chapters, apologised for them and continue to learn from them. The sign of a mature nation is one which embraces and tells its history in the round—its successes and shortcomings alike. By remembering historical wrongs rather than dropping them down the memory hole, we equip future generations with the knowledge that helps prevent those mistakes being made again. Between 1910 and 1970 thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families under the laws and policies of successive Australian governments. The loss, the pain, the suffering and the indignity inflicted upon the children removed, families left behind and their descendants was profound. In the 2008 national apology, Australia acknowledged this cold, confronting, uncomfortable truth, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd put it. His sentiments were echoed by the then Leader of the Opposition, Dr Brendan Nelson, who said: We will be at our best today and every day if we pause to place ourselves in the shoes of others, imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect. The speeches delivered by Prime Minister Rudd and Opposition Leader Nelson weren't only about looking back with a heartfelt expression of regret. They were, importantly, also about looking forward with optimism and a view to betterment. Prime Minister Rudd saw the apology as a 'new beginning', a phrase he mentioned six times in his historic address. In one of the most important passages of his speech, Prime Minister Rudd said: Australians are a passionate lot. We are also a very practical lot. For us, symbolism is important but, unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong. It is not sentiment that makes history; it is our actions that make history. The substance Prime Minister Rudd referred to was to close the gap. The latest Closing the Gap annual report, provided to the coalition a few hours ago, reinforces that the current approach is not working. As the Prime Minister stated, only five of 19 socioeconomic targets are on track. Australians do want to see better outcomes. People do want to see practical solutions which make a tangible difference to the lives of disadvantaged Indigenous Australians. Australians want to see changes on the ground for those Indigenous communities where safety, housing, health, education and employment are critical issues. But, by maintaining the status quo, we will not bring about the drastic improvements we all yearn for. And yet there are beacons of light—clear examples of where things are working. Many of us in this place, including the Prime Minister and I, have visited Gove in East Arnhem Land. It is a success story that we should learn from. Gove's success can be replicated in other parts of the country but not all. I want to pay tribute to the late and great Yunupingu, whose leadership and social and economic initiatives empowered his people—and not just Yunupingu but those people around him in leadership positions. He established the first Indigenous owned mine in Australia. He started new businesses that also provided his people with employment opportunities—employment opportunities in a sustainable logging business, in a building business and in providing services to the community more generally. He helped found the Dhupuma Barker school. The leadership exemplified has been embodied by others in his community. Local elders have continued to attract and leverage private sector investment, which is the source of Gove's success. Industries have been built, projects have been commenced and jobs have been created—meaningful jobs—for locals. Moneys have been spent on betterment and infrastructure projects. Money has been saved to provide for future generations. Mining royalties are helping to establish a future wealth fund. There is a 90 per cent attendance rate at the local school. Kids are engaged in the education system. They are learning both their own language and English. Wonderfully, in 2023, six students competed in the international robotics championship in Texas. The Barker school even has a space program, which will be a pathway for students to work at the Arnhem Space Centre. To be there in that classroom with those students and with those teachers is an incredibly emotional and moving experience. To see the joy on the faces of those young Indigenous children as they were preparing to embark on the trip to the United States—the trip of a lifetime for any young Australians, but in that circumstance, in that part of the world, it was a remarkable story. In addition to looking to the strong leadership in Gove, we can also look to the strong leadership in the Northern Territory. I was with Lia Finocchiaro in Alice Springs on 29 January, along with Senators Price and Liddle as well as Lisa Siebert, a candidate for Lingiari. The chief minister has hit the ground running by making sure that she reflects the views of her local community and prioritises, in particular, a crackdown on the scourge of criminal activity and the unsettling nature that has caused for businesses and non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians who live in Alice Springs, Darwin and across the Northern Territory. Among many effective measures, the chief minister has instigated a new circuit breaker program, where child protection teams conduct nightly patrols that support and free up police. If youth are found out at night or engaging in antisocial behaviours, the teams will take them home or to a safe place to sleep, and I want to thank all of those NGOs, passionate Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, that we met with recently before they were about to embark on some of those night patrols. The services that they provide are life changing and the passion that was obvious is something we should all commend. The work of the Northern Territory police, as the prime minister pointed out before, in relation to the drone program provides an opportunity for the police to more quickly respond to a number of incidents and also domestic violence. The briefing we had from the deputy commissioner in Alice Springs was confronting in relation to the prevalence of domestic violence, and we all dedicate ourselves to making sure that women and children live in safety and in an environment that we would all expect in this place. Under the programs, the families of youth who are held to account through responsible agreements are something worth noting as a success story also, but they have a long way to go. In Alice Springs, I also visited a business owned by Syd Maloney, an Aboriginal man. He has owned Hardy Fencing for more than 20 years and he's recently expanded his business by acquiring Ross Engineering. Syd's workforce is 90 per cent Indigenous. We heard uplifting stories from the people he employees—people who have escaped dire circumstances, achieved financial independence and discovered a new purpose in life. One of Syd's initiatives is that he offers opportunities to young Indigenous Australians who have finished their schooling so that there's a real incentive for kids to complete their HSC. Syd's business is not just an economic multiplier in the Territory; it's also an example of what can be emulated. To hear Syd speak, including through tears as he spoke of his own experience as a child, was exhilarating, and it was a compelling story that he was telling. It was about the opportunity he was providing and the way he was able to leverage the support given to him and his business to provide a new pathway forward for a number of Indigenous young people and older people who are working in that business as well. Practical changes are within reach to improve Indigenous lives. Where there's a will, there is a way, and, where there's strength, there are solutions. When we create crime-free streets, we create safe communities, and, when we have safe communities, we have kids going to school. When kids go to school, they leave equipped with the skills to earn a living, and, when people earn a living, they have resources for their health and homeownership. When there are stable homes, more families realise their aspirations—we all understand this logic. It follows that, where crime continues, aspiration is out of reach, and we will provide every support to the chief minister and the work that the new Territory government is doing in the pursuit of that end. We have the opportunity here in a bipartisan spirit to do what's right and what's effective. We owe that to disadvantaged Indigenous Australians; we owe that to Australian taxpayers. We need to make sure that we can identify the excellence and identify where we can provide further support to leverage the success stories into other communities. We need to learn from the failures of the past and the present to make sure that they're not repeated into the future. There's little that we can do if safety, housing, health, education and employment are not there for Indigenous Australians, and, in too many parts of the country today, those basics are missing. We have to make sure as a national parliament we can work together in a bipartisan way to achieve better outcomes in those regards. It's something that should happen today as we commemorate the national apology anniversary. Let's bring to bear that new beginning which then prime minister Rudd spoke about so optimistically 17 years ago—a new beginning which has eluded us for far too long. I thank the House.