Poverty, disease, illiteracy and homelessness remain. We must recognise our continuing failures at home too. Some have international dimensions. We have a mixed and inconsistent record of addressing human rights violations in other countries. Our most significant failures however all seem to have a racial basis.
Indigenous people are still the most disadvantaged by any measure.
Their treatment is the wrong-doing on which today's Australia is built. Racism is a continuing stain that has discredited much of our history and continues to infect our present. The current racist episode has caused great damage to many of our fellow Australians and others who share this country with us and indeed to our society itself. In recent months the number of complaints of race discrimination has reached record levels. Our Commission has been told of racist abuse and violence, often directed against children.