Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (16:21):  This week we mark a significant milestone in this House with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bob Carr's apology to the Stolen Generation.

I commend the motion as we remember what is a very historic occasion, not only for the Parliament but also for the public of New South Wales.

The New South Wales apology was historic. It was the first apology from any Parliament in Australia.

Our nation will never go forward if we are unable to recognise our history in all its aspects.

Our people will never heal if the wounds of the treatment of our Indigenous Australians are never attended to.

It is important that the Parliament made this historic apology to our Indigenous Australians because it allows us to stimulate the debate that is required and also causes us as a people to reflect on our history.

We can never have a better future if we are unable to recognise the impact and the pain that some of our historical events have caused to a section of our community.

Whilst an apology is a first step in the healing process, we still have much work to do.

Between 1910 and the 1970s many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of various government policies.

The generations of children removed under these policies became known as the Stolen Generation.

Taking children away from their parents, their families and communities that surround them, taking their identity away and commodifying them like items on a shopping shelf where they can be bought and transferred to any place that one wants, is a very dehumanising aspect of the very essence of what it is to be human, to be loved and cared for and linked to one's community of family and friends.

This chapter in our history is something we recognise and is something we need to attend to going forward.

The shameful policies of the removal of children left a legacy of trauma and loss that continues to affect our Indigenous communities and their families today and indeed our nation's psyche.

There is no great pleasure in defending a policy which inflicted so much emotion and psychological hurt.

Children taken from their parents were taught to reject the very essence of who they were, their community and identity, a culture that had tens of thousands of years behind it.

Children were forbidden to speak their own language or engage with their culture and identity. Some children were adopted by white families but many children were also placed in institutions where abuse and neglect were common.

First Nations people who were removed were left with lifelong trauma and were never treated as equal to non‑Indigenous Australians.

I acknowledge the enduring pain, immense suffering and gross injustices those policies caused for our Indigenous Australians. The hurt cannot be undone. Nevertheless, we need to move forward as a nation, and we can start by ensuring that there is a recognition of the historical past, truth-telling, a path to healing and, of course, a path towards reconciliation.

We can never be comfortable as a country and as a community when a section of our people, Indigenous Australians, are so over-represented in categories such as lower life expectancy, lower educational attainment, higher incarceration and higher smoking rates.

It is uncomfortable for our national psyche to see so many of our fellow Australians left so far behind and not achieving their true potential and their aspirations, not only for themselves but for our nation. There is still much work to be done.

The Closing the Gap report continues to say that there is such a wide gap, but it is one that I think we can close with dedication, commitment and recognition of the historical facts.

Life expectancy for our Indigenous Australians is 8.2 years lower than it is for non-Indigenous Australians. The national rate of imprisonment is 15 times higher. There is a 25 per cent gap in educational attainment. This is not good enough for us as a nation. I know all of us should be and are committed to closing that gap.

I know that New South Wales is committed to ensuring a continuing dialogue with our Indigenous Australians to develop a process to improve outcomes across all communities.

The newly elected Federal Labor Government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will progress a referendum to constitutionally enshrine a voice to Parliament and, of course, the Uluru Statement from the Heart to genuinely move things forward. Reconciliation is so important to our nation's future and prosperity.

We can never go forward as a people and as a nation if we are unable to address the shortcomings and the gaps between Australians and Indigenous Australians.