With 1800 of you here and 10,000 Australians having taken part in regional meetings over the past few months, your visible demonstration of support for, and faith in, the importance of reconciliation is extremely important at the moment, especially given the wider political debate happening in our country. We've already had six years of a formal reconciliation process and the purpose of this Convention is to map the way forward for reconciliation in the lead up to the Centenary of Federation in 2001. Some of us are asking whether, in fact, there is a way forward to 1998, let alone 2001. Make no mistake about it - our country is at the crossroads. But we're here today in hope - hope that we can prevent fears and lies and bigotry from holding us back from a mature and responsible future.
Reconciliation is undermined when rights are taken away, either overtly or by stealth.
And reconciliation is devalued by assertions that pastoralists' rights are sacrosanct, but Indigenous rights are not. Reconciliation is about addressing disadvantage. It is not about perpetuating whining fish and chip myths that many Indigenous Australians live a privileged lifestyle on Government handouts. Reconciliation has no place for carping envy or recited mantras of 'equality' which deny history. Reconciliation is about owning and sharing our real history.