2002

1. 1 July

   Australia joins the International Criminal Court which means that genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are now offences under Australian law. Before that they were not.

   Believe it or not, [before 2002] genocide was not an offence under Australian criminal law.

   — Julian Burnside, Melbourne lawyer ^[1]

2. Kathryn Hay (Australian Labor Party) is elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly, representing the electorate of Bass.

3. Marion Scrymgour (Australian Labor Party) in the Northern Territory Assembly becomes the first Aboriginal female minister in any government in the history of Australia.

2001

1. 18 August

   Jack Ah Kit, a Jawoyn man from Alice Springs, becomes the first Aboriginal government minister of the Northern Territory when the Australian Labor Party wins office. His portfolios include local government, housing and sport. He resigned in 2005 for health reasons.
   

2. Aden Ridgeway is the first Aboriginal person to be elected as a parliamentary leader when he holds the position of Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats from 2001 to 2002.

3. Carol Martin (Australian Labor Party), becomes the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the parliament of an Australian state when she wins the seat of Kimberley in the Parliament of Western Australia.

4. Matthew Bonson (Darwin), Elliot McAdam (Tennant Creek) and Marion Scrymgour (Melville Island), are elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorates of Millner, Barkly and Arafura respectively.

1998

1. Federal election results in a second Aboriginal person elected to federal parliament - Senator Aden Ridgeway. He is to remain a Democrats Senator for New South Wales until 2005, the only Aboriginal person serving in the Australian parliament during that time.

1997

1. 27 May

   During the opening address of the Reconciliation Convention Premier Minister John Howard refers to the plight of Australia’s Aboriginal people as a mere ‘blemish’, dismissing centuries of dispossession and violence as insignificant. Indigenous delegates in the audience stand and turn their backs on the Prime Minister in protest. The PM snaps and screams at the audience in return.

   In facing the realities of the past, [...] we must not join those who would portray Australia's history since 1788 as little more than a disgraceful record of imperialism [...] such an approach will be repudiated by the overwhelming majority of Australians who are proud of what this country has achieved although inevitably acknowledging the blemishes in its past history.

   — Then-Prime Minister, John Howard

1996

1. Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party campaign against Aboriginal ‘special treatment’.

2. Paul Harriss (Independent) is elected to the Legislative Council in Tasmania, representing the electorate of Huon.

1995

1. John Ah Kit (Australian Labor Party), from Darwin is elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Arnhem.

1992

1. 10 December

   Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Redfern speech at the launch of the International Year of the Indigenous People acknowledges past wrongs perpetrated against Aboriginal people.

2. Maurice Rioli (Australian Labor Party), from Melville Island is elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Arafura.

1991

1. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation is set up, funded by the federal government, with cross-party support. The parliament noted that there had not been a formal process of reconciliation to date, “and that it was most desirable that there be such a reconciliation” by 2001.

1989

1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) is established as main Commonwealth agency in Indigenous affairs.

1988

1. Human Rights Commission reports that conditions at Toomelah and Boggabilla settlements are worse than in Third World countries.

2. Australia’s representative to the United Nations Human Rights Committee acknowledges ‘public policy regarding the care of Aboriginal children, particularly during the postwar period, had been a serious mistake’.

1987

1. Stanley Tipiloura (Australian Labor Party), from Bathurst Island, is elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, representing the electorate of Arafura.

2. Northern Territory elections are held and for the first time voting is compulsory for Aboriginal people.

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References