For kids, education is everything. But we cannot hope to give that to them if their communities are not safe, their housing is inadequate and their health is lousy. As I said before we have never had opportunities for change like those that are before us today. We do not want to look back in 10 years time and say that we wished we had taken the chance when the opportunity was there for the taking.

We will waste that opportunity if we are not prepared to tell it like it is. We have got to be courageous and deliver results. Good intentions are not good enough. Indigenous Australians must be able to expect the same range of opportunities as other Australians. No more cultural museums that might make some people feel good and leave Indigenous Australians without a viable future. Continuing cultural identity does not require poverty or isolation from mainstream Australian society.

We are talking fundamental change, changing the way governments relate to Indigenous Australians. Making sure they deliver to their Indigenous citizens as they do to all other citizens.

As long as 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, in a very elegant political speech entitled ‘A Strenuous Life’ highlighted the point that worthy goals are not easily achieved. The changes we need to make will certainly not be easy but, as Roosevelt pointed out, a strenuous life is a life worth living.