Leaders of the Uniting Church today urged the Federal Government to support the establishment of a National Summit and a Reparations Tribunal as recommended by the Senate Inquiry into the Stolen Generations.

"It’s now time to focus on healing rather than wounding. Let’s get serious about healing the hurt and trauma of this nation created by generations of racially based child removal policies," said Rev Professor James Haire, President of the Uniting Church in Australia.

"The Uniting Church will be first in line to join a national summit on this issue. And if the Federal Government wants to walk away from this summit and not bring Australia together on this issue, we will still be there. We have got to talk this through.

"A National Summit leading to, among other things, a Reparations Tribunal, as suggested by the Senate Inquiry, has the potential to take us forward. We must move forward to bring true reconciliation and end the divisiveness", he said.

"As the Senate Inquiry notes, the court system by itself is an inappropriate means for handling claims for compensation by those who have been traumatised or dispossessed by the process of removal.

"The work of a Reparations Tribunal needs to be backed up by a national fund to support the healing process. This could be established by the Council of Australian Government, thus, bringing the Commonwealth, the states and the community together in the reconciliation process.The Uniting Church in Australia has since 1997 declared its support for such a fund and for its willingness to contribute to it," he said.

The Reverend Shayne Blackman, the National Administrator of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, said: "We now have an opportunity to acknowledge and feel sorrow for the pain of the Stolen Generations. It’s time the Federal Government ended this divisive politicking and supported the call for a humane and non-adversarial reparation and compensation process as suggested in the Senate Report.

"We are all in this together -institutions and individuals - and together we can choose to either seek to heal or continue to wound the stolen generations. As leader of our nation the Prime Minister is the one who can bring the nation together in our journey of healing."