Wednesday, 13th of February, 2008

I remember that way back when the whole sorry mess began, when our oh-so-very-ex-Prime Minister John Howard refused to say “Sorry” for the unimaginable injustices and humiliation suffered by tens of thousands of Indigenous Australians as revealed once and for all in the Bringing them Home report, FourPlay played at the big inaugral Sorry Day event at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. It was a matter of pride, and very moving, to take part in that, however briefly, but that’s nothing like the pride we can feel today after our new Prime Minister’s remarkable speech at the opening of Parliament. I was at work, and watched what I could on YouTube, but thanks to Peter Martin, I’ve now been able to read the whole speech. It’s quite long, and as Martin describes it, both gripping and well-judged.

If you didn’t get to see it, or indeed if you did, I commend you to read the whole transcript. It’s a beauty. We can only hope that there will be real, honest and productive action taken, in co-operation with Indigenous communities around Australia, to turn things round — to bring some hope for future generations. Rudd mentions the really big problems, and it’s worth quoting:

Our challenge for the future is to cross that bridge and, in so doing, to embrace a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians—to embrace, as part of that partnership, expanded Link-up and other critical services to help the stolen generations to trace their families if at all possible and to provide dignity to their lives. But the core of this partnership for the future is to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities. This new partnership on closing the gap will set concrete targets for the future: within a decade to halve the widening gap in literacy, numeracy and employment outcomes and opportunities for Indigenous Australians, within a decade to halve the appalling gap in infant mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and, within a generation, to close the equally appalling 17-year life gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous in overall life expectancy.