MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Senator LIDDLE (South Australia) (18:05): I move: That the Senate take note of the ministerial statement. I rise to talk a little bit about the past, but not the political past. I also rise to talk about the future.

It was good to be at the 40th anniversary celebrations on the traditional lands of the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples. I acknowledge the Prime Minister, his colleagues, other MPs and the Governor-General. I was there alongside the federal member for Grey, Tom Venning, from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands just south of Uluru-Kata Tjuta, because, of course, that western border doesn't matter to people.

Mr Venning's seat represents many Anangu people in the APY Lands. They are also traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. I was there to represent the Leader of the Opposition for the commemorations.

Over a thousand people joined in those celebrations, and I acknowledge those senior people, or kamis and tjamus, who are no longer with us and those who weren't able to travel for the celebrations. I want to talk a little bit about that area and its tourism history because it's very close to me. In my suite here in Parliament House, there's a photograph from that day 40 years ago.

It was given to me by one of those old people to remind me of how important it is to speak up in this place and to talk truth. My family have a very close history to that area—not my Arrernte family but my Pitjantjatjara family and Yankunytjatjara family. My Scottish family had several pastoral properties in that region.

When the Northern Territory and South Australia were one, my great-great-grandfather wrote a letter to the South Australian parliament saying to open up that area to tourism. Critically, he also made sure that all of those Anangu people—it was tough times back then. There was drought.

They were fighting over sheep for eating. It was pretty tough. He kept them on those station properties and set up a roadhouse.

People in Imanpa, not very far away, had a goat farm. They would sell goat milk to the tourists that were starting to make their way through there. The Aboriginal people from the region started to engage in commercial activity.

They were selling their artefacts, selling food and selling their commodities to people who came there. There's a long history there. Those old people that are living in Mutitjulu, Pukatja, Imanpa and right throughout the APY Lands actually worked in that resort when it was right up against Uluru, that special place.

So there is a very long history of engagement in commercial activity as well as engagement in country. I pay respects to those old people that did that. The celebration was full of traditional dances, some of which have never changed over the many years, and they still delight today.

They were truly incredible. Uluru-Kata Tjuta is still held by Aboriginal people in land leased to the Commonwealth and co-managed in a partnership with traditional owners. It is about bringing Western knowledge and traditional knowledge together and generating respect for both of those things together.

Ngapartji ngapartji—it's about sharing knowledge and sharing learning, a really critical concept. I mentioned how the anniversary serves as a reminder that co-management must go way beyond just looking after country or kuka kanyani, looking after animals. It must be about, again, the active participation in all of the opportunities that are generated by tourism.

That's really critical because there are so many opportunities, and we must make sure that people participate in and contribute to it all. They don't just have to be rangers. They can do anything.

I was lucky enough to attend the National Indigenous Training Academy's graduation at Voyages Ayers Rock Resort. There, 272 people are employed at that resort. But, when I was there just a few years ago, I managed to get that number to 400, including people from that local community.

We can and must do more. Those people weren't employed just in the land management areas or caring for the gardens. They were assistant managers in the hotels.

They were people who looked after and cleaned the rooms that people lived in, and people loved engaging with them. The engagement was the critical aspect of people's experience. They weren't just paying to come to Uluru.

They weren't just coming to see that incredible place. They wanted to engage with local people and share that experience ngapartji ngapartji—together. Yes, we do have to do a lot more and we do have to look further than what's close to us and look at how we make sure that people that are out there are going to school.

Kids must go to school. I want to see them flying the helicopters that fly around the resort. I want to see them managing those hotels.

I want to see more of them not just contributing to the board of management in a way that contributes traditional knowledge but as the accountants, the lawyers, the doctors. We have to make way for them to participate in their futures, and we have to be brutal about that. They don't have time, and we don't have time.

Their elders expect us to do that. It is critical. I go on and on in this place about good governance.

It's not like it just turned up yesterday, good governance. Aboriginal people have known good governance. You cannot survive 65,000 years, according to carbon dating, without a rule of law and structures, respect for each other, looking after each other—all of those things that are important.

We must make sure that, in all of the things that we do, we don't just have that expectation but also make sure that the structures that people engage with are also safe and enable those good people to participate and push forward with hard stuff; argue, like we should in this place, about things that we disagree on; but always remain focused on the end goal: everybody doing better.

Multigenerational benefits are going to be crucial to the future of that place. I talked about the involvement of older people in the tourism industry. You could go out to Mutitjulu, the community that sits at the base of Uluru, and you would see, like I did, perfect pintucks in some of those mattresses that are there on those old cyclone beds, because people knew how to make beds.

They participated in the economy. You know what? As a senator, one of the most exciting things about being in this place is when I check into a hotel, and often I see people who are at NITA, the training academy, working at the resort.

They're working in hotels right across this country. That's true reconciliation. That's not about confining them to just working at Uluru.

They should be able to work absolutely anywhere, and we should support them and make sure they can do that. I acknowledge the dedicated staff at Parks Australia, but I also acknowledge all of those community people that contribute to keeping that place alive, keeping country alive, keeping culture alive and keeping community facing in the right direction. But we all have a part to play here.

It's not just about them doing that. It's about us making sure that the structures that they have to engage with also create opportunities for them. Leveraging from tourism and hospitality is not easy.

It involves risk, but it also involves great opportunity. I want to see people, as I said, not just working and doing tours. I want to see them everywhere.

They should be everywhere. They've been everywhere before. We've just got to put the tools in place to make sure that they are everywhere again, and it starts with looking after the children.

It starts with getting those parents to get kids to school. It starts with looking after the elders and making sure they stay well for longer so that they can do the important work of looking after children and sharing their knowledge, not doing the things they need to do to keep children alive. We need to support those parents who are raising children in sometimes difficult circumstances and provide the early intervention and prevention that's required to support them to participate not just as Indigenous Australians but as citizens of this country who should be able to participate the same as everyone else.

Race has nothing to do with it. Question agreed to.