Australians urged to walk together for reconciliation
It was an iconic moment Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine said, and one being remembered 25 years later as Reconciliation Week begins with the theme "Bridging Now to Next".
"That was such a great moment, to see so many people came out in force and say 'I want to be part of this work, I want to be part of reconciliation'," she told AAP.
Reconciliation Week is held each year between May 27 and June 3, marking the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.
Ms Mundine said to understand where Australia found itself, it was important to understand the past, the triumphs and the setbacks, and the truth of its history.
"'Bridging Now to Next' is really about learning from history, it's about grounding us and where we are today and then using all of that combined knowledge to chart a new path forward," she said.
Ms Mundine said 25 years after the bridge walk, there was still a need for reconciliation in Australia, with the issues of voice, treaty and truth-telling, raised in the Uluru Statement from the Heart not yet dealt with.
"(During the referendum) we weren't able to convince enough Australians to get that over the line," she said.
"That's the job of reconciliation to get out there and broaden the Australian community's understanding about history and understanding that impact on First Nations people, not just in the past but as it happens today."
Monday marked eight years since the Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued, an anniversary that brought up a lot of emotion for Allira Davis.
The Cobble Cobble woman is a co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue and Australia still has a long way to go to meaningfully recognise Aboriginal people.
"We still need structural reform in place," she said.
"We still need something that represents us.
"Unfortunately, Closing the Gap is not working. We've only met four of the 19 targets ... something needs to change."
But just as the thousands who crossed the harbour bridge for reconciliation in 2000, Ms Davis said there were plenty of people who stood with First Nations people in October 2023, and continue to do so.
"We do have 6.2 million friends that did vote yes," she said.
"In terms of reconciliation, I think our non-Indigenous brothers and sisters are still walking with us."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
a few seconds ago
- Sky News AU
Netanyahu calls on Albanese government to ‘take immediate action' against antisemitism
Sky News contributor Sophie Elsworth discusses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'criticising' the Australian government. Ms Elsworth told Sky News Australia that Israel has asked the Albanese government to 'take immediate action' against antisemitism. 'And he sent similar letters to other nations, including France, that are also recognising Palestinian statehood.'
Sky News AU
30 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Shock NDIS figures reveal more than 71 per cent of new participants have autism diagnosis, sparking calls for reform
Shocking new figures show that more than 71 per cent of new NDIS participants have joined the scheme due to an autism diagnosis, sparking calls for the $46 billion program to be reformed. An analysis of the National Disability Insurance Scheme by The Age has revealed 56,000 of the 78,600 people who signed up to the NDIS in the 12 months leading to June 2025 had autism as their primary diagnosis. The number of new NDIS participants with autism was more than 10 times higher than the next most common reason, with 5,553 joining due to a developmental delay, 4,406 due to an intellectual disability and 1,618 due to a hearing impairment. Other reasons included multiple sclerosis, 1,077, cerebral palsy, 533, a spinal cord injury, 309, and down syndrome, 84. The new figures bring the number of NDIS participants with autism to 295,000, almost 40 per cent of the 749,000 people on the scheme. They have also renewed concerns about the sustainability of the NDIS, which is already one of the biggest items in the federal budget and sparked calls for reform. Responding to the reports, Autism Awareness Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson said the government needed to 'tighten the criteria' for people to be eligible for the NDIS or else the Australian public would 'start losing faith in this system'. Ms Rogerson said she did not blame the parents and families who were trying to get the support they felt they needed, but added the government needed to 'show leadership'. Concerns about the growth of autism diagnosis and the NDIS are not new. In 2023 then NDIS minister Bill Shorten flagged changes to address the issue, warning the NDIS 'can't be a surrogate school system'. 'The (NDIS) was designed for people who need assistance with core functioning, with the most profound disabilities. I don't think the scheme was ever intended just to say, 'I have a diagnosis, therefore I'm on the scheme',' Shorten said at the time. Those comments came after Mr Shorten, who played a key role in the development of the NDIS a decade earlier, said that rather than focus being placed on the diagnosis, it ought to be a matter of how much the autism effected the person's learning. 'We just want to move away from diagnosis writing you into the scheme because what (then) happens is everyone gets the diagnosis.' His acknowledgement came after a number of experts raised concerns about how NDIS eligibility criteria was distorting autism spectrum disorder diagnoses. At the time of diagnosis, patients with autism spectrum disorder are classified as level one (requiring support), level two (requiring substantial support) and level three (requiring very substantial support). As paediatrician Professor Gehan Roberts explained at the time, the fact NDIS support was only offered for levels two and three was leading to a distortion in diagnoses. 'When funding access is based on arbitrary lines in the sand like it is currently, prevalence of level 2 and 3 ASD diagnoses increases and level 1 plummets,' he said. 'As a healthcare provider, we go into bat in an advocacy role for our patients. If a family with no other means to access support has been told by a disability service provider there's no other way it can provide support services other than through the NDIS, that's when the pressure comes on the clinician to make a diagnosis at a level that will allow services to continue.' Mr Shorten said that he had no doubt early intervention was an 'excellent tool to help kids' the problem was the NDIS was 'in danger of becoming the only lifeboat in the ocean'. 'We've got to have a conversation in Australia about helping kids with milder forms of developmental delay who don't need to be on the NDIS,' he said.
Sky News AU
30 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
'You wont last the distance': Pauline Hanson reveals what she told Liberal leader Sussan Ley at private dinner
Senator Pauline Hanson has revealed what she told Sussan Ley during a private dinner with the new Opposition Leader. Speaking to Sky News Australia's Andrew Bolt, the One Nation leader said she had spoken to Ms Ley about her electoral chances over the meal. 'Look Sussan is a nice woman, by all means, but she's not a conservative. To me, she's too far on the left,' Senator Hanson said. 'I actually had dinner with her and I actually said to her face, I said: 'Sorry Sussan, you won't last the distance. You won't be there at the next election'." The One Nation leader said she had acknowledged the Opposition Leader might prove her wrong, and Ms Ley had said she would do just that, but the Queensland Senator remained unconvinced. 'I don't believe she will be there for the long term and especially she won't be as leader of the conservative party – of the Liberals – leading into the next election,' Senator Hanson said. The One Nation Leader said the Coalition had not 'put across clear policies' and were lacking in conviction. 'When I put up a bill that I want a Senate inquiry into gender dysphoria and what is happening with these puberty blockers and kids having these operations and bits and pieces cut off… (the Coalition) were kicking and screaming, in the beginning not even (wanting) to vote,' she said. 'They wouldn't even support it, they all left the chamber, and that was necessary for the parents to have their say (in) what was happening to their children. 'They can't even face that. They're… defending the female sector and this transgender rubbish that's going on at the moment, or kids in the educational system told you can choose whether you want to be a boy or a girl. 'How can you stand back and see this going on and not speak up against it?' Senator Hanson said throughout her career she had been a 'conviction politician' and people were waking up. 'We address issues about cutting 90 billion out of the budget every year to put more money in the pockets of Australians. We're addressing taxation, looking after pensions, self-funded retirees, income splitting in the households," she said. 'We've addressed many other issues too… over the years (including)… multiculturalism, immigration, Vovid-19, the Voice, all these issues in industries, manufacturing, the farming sector, the dairy industry, the live sheep exports. 'I've actually led the way with my policies… the Liberals always seem to follow it in my wake. But the people there are starting to wake up. They're fed up with the major political parties. Senator Hanson said 35 per cent of Australians had not voted for the major parties at the last election and One Nation were already polling at 9 per cent – a 50 per cent increase since the election. 'We've won 11 seats in the nine years that I have been here back in Parliament, since 2016 we've actually won 11 seats in state and federal politics, and a couple of council elections,' she said. 'On top of that as well, we now have the same number of senators as the National Party has and they've been around for what, 50 or 60 years? 'I'm going to drive this party, because one day I want One Nation to take government. I'm fed up with the major political parties. I'm fed up with this country being in moral decline, the loss of our standard of living, the policies that they are doing. 'There is no conviction politicians, no one that's patriotic to this country and driving the issues that I see that future generations are going to be paying back a debt and will be living in third world conditions.'
