Deputy Chair - NSW Reconciliation Council
Former NSW Parliamentary Secretary
for Aboriginal Affairs 1995 - 2003
Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs 1989 - 1995

“And I commit my Government wholeheartedly to reconciliation with our Indigenous peoples”.

Remember this, from our Prime Minister John Howard, in his election victory speech in 1998? It seems a long time ago now. The Prime Minister’s commitment throws into stark relief his Government’s agenda for national reconciliation. That agenda is unrecognisable to those of us who signed up to the reconciliation movement and its national goals at the 1997 Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne.

Contrary to the assertion of a Prime Minister flushed with election victory, reconciliation has never been an agenda of any weight or importance to the current Federal Government. In fact, the Prime Minister has deliberately and systematically dismantled the layered apparatus that supported the reconciliation movement, leaving only the goodwill of its supporters to make reconciliation a reality.

Reconciliation is no longer supported by federal legislation. There is no national framework for Local, State and Federal Governments to work together. There is no formal mechanism for measuring the progress of reconciliation or compelling our federal government to address the reconciliation agenda.

The final report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation made six recommendations to progress reconciliation. The Federal Government’s response to the report was two years in the making and dismissed all but one of the recommendations. The report represented the largest community consultation ever undertaken in this country. Ten years of hard work is now filed somewhere awaiting a new political era that looks a long time coming.

Led by the Prime Minister, the Federal Government has waged a virulent campaign to wind back the native title rights of Indigenous people. It maintains a stony silence on issues of self determination, customary law and treaty. The Government denies justice and comfort to the Stolen Generation by refusing to offer a national apology. It has insulted and denigrated the pain of Stolen Generation families by refusing all calls for compensation. It has depicted stolen children in the so called ‘Separation Sliver’ at Reconciliation Place, as smiling and happy.

Across all social indicators a grim picture emerges of the lives of Indigenous people and yet, the desperation and poverty that characterises much of Indigenous Australia does not seem move this government at all.

The Reconciliation movement has always been about acknowledging the particular rights of Indigenous people and seeking redress for the terrible plight our history has delivered them. At its heart reconciliation has always been about social justice.

However, there is no longer a Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and there is no federal funding for the national reconciliation body, Reconciliation Australia. There are no federal funds for education materials, resources or research. Reconciliation in this country now relies on philanthropy and very small grants from some State and Territory governments to their State Reconciliation Councils. As a national goal, reconciliation receives nothing from the Federal Treasury.

This is not an oversight. It is a deliberate government decision to make reconciliation fade away and it is nothing short of a national disgrace.

Despite the concerted effort of the Federal Government, reconciliation remains alive in the hearts and minds of many Australians. In NSW there are over 60 local reconciliation groups working in suburban and rural and regional communities to make reconciliation a reality.

Local Reconciliation Groups (LRGs) are voluntary groups and receive no ongoing funding. They work to educate their communities about Aboriginal culture, promote partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations and provide a safe meeting place for both communities to explore their relationships.

LRGs are supported by the NSW Reconciliation Council (NSWRC), the peak body for reconciliation in this state. The NSWRC receives funding from the State Government to work with the reconciliation movement at the community and state level.

The NSW Government was the first state government to recognise that reconciliation needed support at the state level. It has continued to fund the state council even as the federal process ground to a halt. It has provided a modest increase in funding to the NSWRC for the next four years to assist in building the capacity of local reconciliation groups to tackle reconciliation issues in their local communities.

A small grants program will provide registered LRGs with funds for reconciliation initiatives. A local history project that tells one community’s story and has a reconciliation agenda will be funded over four years. Education resources will be developed to ensure the reconciliation agenda does not completely disappear from view. Good will and dedication need to be matched by dollars and the NSW Reconciliation Council will now be able to contribute financially to that local grassroots work.

It is hard work, sometimes unrewarding, sometimes frustrating and often thankless. And yet if we as a nation don’t choose reconciliation and make it a reality, then what have we chosen? Division, separation, an unresolved history and an uneasy relationship with the people who own this country.

That’s not a solution I can live with and I don’t believe most Australians want that for their country. So, at the state and local level I will continue to work for reconciliation and urge all I can to join me.

Col Markham
Deputy Chair
NSW Reconciliation Council
Former NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Aboriginal Affairs 1995 - 2003
Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs 1989 - 1995