Tuesday, 15 October 2024

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:09): Last Thursday I had an enormous and humbling privilege. On behalf of successive Victorian governments and parliaments I recognised the injustice, acknowledged the enormous pain and finally admitted the truth. The Victorian government formally and privately apologised for the first time to First Nations Victorians who were forcibly removed from their families, communities, cultures and country as part of the stolen generations.

It was because of the laws and policies enacted in this very place that families were broken up, children were torn apart and lives were forever altered. We took children from their country and their culture. We forbade them from speaking their language and practising their traditions. We deprived them of the things that make them human, the things that make all of us whole, and we lied about it too. We falsified records and hid the truth about their beginnings.

Survivors have told me about their deep sense of disconnection, not knowing who they are or where they have come from, and for many the consequences have been lifelong. This apology that I delivered last Thursday has been a very, very long time coming for so many brave survivors. I want to acknowledge everyone who fought over so many decades to get to this point, and we are here and only here because of their fierce determination and the determination of people like Ian Hamm, Aunty Annie Nikkelson, Aunty Sandra Barber and every member of the stolen generations advisory and steering committee.

No amount of reparation can remedy the impacts of being taken from your family, but here in this place I do want to promise every child of a stolen generation that this is just the beginning, not the end. We will continue to listen to you and learn from you. We will ensure that your experience is never forgotten and it can never happen again.