Yes we can - no we can't

Now if that is still a little difficult to picture - then I’d settle for an Indigenous person holding the office of Secretary of a Commonwealth department responsible for Indigenous affairs. OK, perhaps I’m asking for too much, but maybe they might consider offering a Deputy Secretary role to one of our many qualified Indigenous graduates around the nation.

Now if that is a little problematic then why not skip the elected or appointed role for Indigenous people at the federal level and why don’t we have a far simpler wish that all Indigenous Australians be afforded equal rights: access to the same education, health, legal, housing and employment opportunities.

If that seems like a bit of a burden on tax payers to manage then how about providing Indigenous people with the same level of security, i.e. policing, in discrete Indigenous communities as that offered to comparable sized mainstream communities, to protect our most vulnerable members - women and children.

And if that is still asking for too much can I be bold enough to suggest we just settle for all Indigenous Australians having access to basic running water and a septic system.

Is that a “Yes We Can” on the last request?

Well if my utopia for Indigenous Australia is problematic and my vision of a black Prime Minister unattainable then I’ll just have to contend with periodically clicking on my recorded Obama inauguration speech for inspiration: “Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old.”