If a decade was long enough for Australia to organise federation, argues Lydia Miller, it should have been long enough to achieve reconciliation. Reconciliation has stirred a nation's conscience. That the document created by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation lies in some government office gathering dust is an insult.
People put governments in power and they can remove governments .
The people have instructed the Government that this is a central issue for the nation. The social justice imperative of reconciliation requires action now. It requires the formal acceptance of the civil, political, economic, social and cultural changes necessary to ensure a united Australia that values the heritage of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. The focus of reconciliation must be on institutional, structural, collaborative and co-operative reform. It is about a fundamental shift from welfare to basic rights, from dependence to autonomy, from government assistance to power.