I acknowledge the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation, on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to all First Nations people here today. I also acknowledge the work of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Australian Democracy Network, Australian Progress and so many of you in the room towards Closing the Gap. It’s a privilege to be joining Professor Kristy Muir, the remarkable Saffron Zomer, who has done so much to build capacity and charitable advocacy, and advocate and Indigenous Marathon Foundation graduate Amelia Telford in the panel today.
I want to talk today about 3 big stories of social change that were driven by the activist power of communities, philanthropy and charities.
The first story starts on 29 August 1966, when 200 Gurindji stockmen, led by Vincent Lingiari, led the Wave Hill Walk‑Off. The Wave Hill Walk‑Off began over a discontent with the way in which the Vestey landowners had been treating Aboriginal workers on the land. This was the land of the traditional owners, but the cattle herders had fenced it in, had allowed pollution to get into the water holes and had refused to pay the stockmen properly.
The 1966 Wave Hill Walk‑Off was a powerful move because it meant the stockmen missed out on the meagre rations that they were provided. It didn’t lead to quick results. It wasn’t until 1975 that the Whitlam government negotiated a land rights settlement and handed back a portion of the land to the Gurindji people. That moment of the handback is one of the most famous photos in Australian history: the moment when Gough Whitlam poured sand into the hand of Vincent Lingiari. And Vincent Lingiari, in an act of extraordinary grace and generosity, says, ‘we’re all mates now.’
My youngest son, Zachary, attended the Wiradjuri Early Learning Centre in Canberra. There were 2 photos on the wall. One was of Whitlam, the other one was of Lingiari. And so the children would be taught the story of the Wave Hill Walk‑Off and the story of how land rights began. It’s not a perfect story. The land rights provided to the Gurindji people then were inadequate, but it was the beginnings of change, marked by an extraordinary community campaign. As Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s song puts it, ‘From Little Things, Big Things Grow’.
The second story began close to here, on 28 June 1978, when about 500 gay and lesbian Australians spilled out of the bars and onto the streets for the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. It wasn’t the kind of celebration which this year saw half a million Sydneysiders lining the streets to cheer the floats. Instead, it was a protest inspired by the Stonewall uprising that had occurred 9 years earlier. The first Sydney Mardi Gras was protesting against the criminalisation of homosexuality and the vigilante bashings of gay and lesbian Australians.
Police had granted permission for the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, but that was withdrawn and quickly police attempted to disperse the protesters. As protesters were dispersing, moving through King’s Cross, some 53 were arrested. Only 2 would later be charged. But what arrest meant was humiliation. In an era where homosexuality was illegal, the Sydney Morning Herald chose to publish their names. Many subsequently lost their jobs, many were estranged from friends and family. So, the result of that first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was extraordinary pain and suffering for many of those who walked. Then the extraordinary story of the Mardi Gras is that evolution from a protest to a celebration. Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1984. Same‑sex marriage became law in 2017. It happened through the campaign of activists supported by charities and community groups. Law reform, led by brave people coming out to the streets.
The third story began on 18 April 2008. That was the year that Kevin Rudd held the 2020 Summit. Perhaps the most exciting idea to come to that Summit was the notion of a ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Disability Insurance Scheme. At the time, we had a painfully deficient patchwork of supports for people with disabilities. At that time, if you suffered a profound disability through a car crash, you received some reasonable level of support, but if you suffered the same injury through falling off a roof, often you got nothing. When I was elected in 2010, I remember people coming into my office talking about the fact that in such a situation, a person with disability might only get support that would allow one shower a week. I remember parents of children with profound disabilities saying that their greatest fear was that their child would outlive them, and that they didn’t know what would happen to that child once they were gone.
The ‘Every Australian Counts’ movement mobilised around a single goal. It organised a whole panoply of disability organisations in order to garner support for the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Disability Insurance Scheme. That ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Disability Insurance Scheme, put in place by the Gillard government, under the leadership of Julia Gillard, Jenny Macklin, Bill Shorten and others, is now an integral pillar of our social safety net. It ensures now that people with profound disabilities in Australia are better cared for than in almost any other country in the world. And it happened thanks to that community activism.
These stories remind us that big change sometimes begins with people power. It can begin with the work of charities, community groups, and philanthropists. I want to acknowledge the work that each of you do in identifying those issues for the future. There is clearly still work to be done on Closing the Gap, LGBTIQ+ equality and equal treatment of people with disability. There are also other areas that we haven’t yet identified. One of the challenges for philanthropy isn’t just to solve the traditional problems, but to identify fresh problems.
As a member of the government, let me make clear that the work that charities do, advocating for better policies, is something that is warmly welcomed. It’s warmly welcomed when it aligns with us ideologically. It is welcomed too, when it differs with us. You don’t truly support charitable advocacy if you only do so when charity advocates agree with you. You have to support charitable advocacy as a principle. As a government, we do.
Thank you for all the work that you do. Thank you for being the changemakers. I look forward to our conversation this morning.
