Looking at this as objectively as one can from the White side of the settlement of Australia Felix, (Lucky Australia), it seems to me that the luck was one sided indeed, and that settlement by invaders brings with it more than simple dispossession of one’s world. Such angst can carry through and fester for many generations. I for one am still acutely aware of our fruitless ANZAC sacrifices where we were the colonial cannon fodder of others. I have listened with interest to every argument I can over the past few weeks, and have been dismayed by both the lack of honesty and also the surplus of emotional rhetoric that has abounded.

That said, it seems to me that if so many of our fellow, and so sorely disadvantaged Australians, need to hear us today, say sorry, then as those who where responsible, [with both right and wrong intent at heart], are not here to do so, then I say it on their behalf, genuinely, loudly and whole heartedly.

If I am asked to deny the so many realities, and to whitewash inconvenient truths from both sides of the divide, I cannot do so. I sincerely hope that, as we move forward in seeking social justice for all Australians, we do so on a solid base of facts as well, and do not shy away from, as Al Gore says, those “inconvenient truths”.

In time, the first 50 000 years of human settlement in Australia and its culture, will become a very proud and intrinsic part of what we think we are as a people.

One hopes that the proposed Future Forum finds an all embracing ‘Vision Splendid’ [that includes reconciliation], of which we can be proud.