Will to win

Gone forever are the days when we were viewed, without complaint, as homogenous and where our fight was from a position of disadvantage and our supporters were from the socialist left.

By far the biggest surprise from the Prime Minister in his address at the Sydney Sofitel Wentworth Hotel was his admission that; "I have never felt comfortable with the dominant paradigm for Indigenous policy – one based on the shame and guilt of non-Indigenous Australians, on a repudiation of the Australia I grew up in, on a rights agenda that led ultimately and inexorably towards welfare dependency and on a philosophy of separateness rather than shared destiny".

To rectify his shortcomings and admission of guilt for his decades of deliberate abandonment of Indigenous people, Howard offered up before an adoring audience of like minded conservatives his new goal of a Statement of Reconciliation incorporated into the Preamble of the Australian Constitution.

The new preamble, Howard argued, would reflect his profound sentiment that Indigenous Australians should enjoy the full bounty that this country has to offer; that their economic, social and cultural well-being should be comparable to that of other Australians.

Now, no one would argue with parity of economic, social and cultural well-being for Indigenous Australians espoused by the Prime Minister. But in order to have this vision accomplished within practical time parameters requires not only a full commitment from him but also a total change in attitude of the vast majority of the populace on this new policy direction for Indigenous Australians.

In many ways Howard is correct when he says he is best able to lead Australia’s conservatives in this ideological mind shift. And as the most conservative leader in my living memory, including his Prime Ministership for the last 11 years, I'm reasonably happy to accept that like-minded people will tend to follow his lead.

Howard's election promise of $2 billion for the Northern Territory Indigenous intervention is significantly higher than Rudd’s commitment on Indigenous initiatives thus far of $116 million. However Rudd did offer bipartisan support of the $2 billion for the NT intervention policy initiatives.

Noel Pearson, in his Weekend Australian piece on 13-14 October, called Howard’s new outlook of a symbolic reconciliation as "a holy grail for Australians of goodwill".

Yirrkala Elder Djuwalpi Marika, in acknowledging Howard’s new direction on Indigenous reconciliation on ABC Message Stick online, was quick to pounce on his admission of failure; "We also welcome Prime Minister Howard's acknowledgment of his inadequate understanding of issues of Indigenous identity and of his role in preventing more significant progress towards reconciliation over the past 11 years".

Prominent Brisbane Aboriginal activist and university lecturer Sam Watson, speaking to the Brisbane Times, described Mr Howard as a "political opportunist" and dismissed his offer to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution as poll politics.

Howard rounds off his address to The Sydney Institute by saying he is a realist and true reconciliation will be the work of generations. Reconciliation at best, he argues, is, and must be, a people’s movement.

I have no doubt that Howard is correct of his final assessment on reconciliation, but it’s a pity that he has different views on what matters most to Indigenous Australians when it comes to policy direction and how that advice is achieved.