Finally our PM has unreservedly apologised for the mistakes of the past, regardless of the noble and good intentions of those who carried out the policies of assimilation. I applaud the PM and the leader of the Opposition for their speeches today on my behalf as citizen of Australia.

It is clear with the hurt and and social issues that are so prevalent that assimilation by forced removal of part-Aboriginal children from their families was a mistake.

While it’s true many children where saved, it is undeniable that too many fell from the pot into the fire, and that is wrong.

Growing up, as a small child I was surrounded by Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal station hands, in fact the vast majority of my father’s West Australian staff were of Aboriginal descent, and having 11 children between my parents, as well as staff to look after and feed, my mother also had help in the house from part-Aboriginal girls.

It doesn’t need to be said, but they treated their staff as family and gave to them the knowledge they needed to assimilate from the outback missions into the wider Australian community…There were the associated dramas of integration, like the ‘walkabout’ where mum would come home and the girl be gone or the lads not turn up for work.

I will never allow someone to tell me that my parents’ part in assimilation was using people of Aboriginal decent as menial workers…Do those same people who call agricultural and caring for children menial work also look down on myself and the farm workers of this country, as well as the thousands of nannies and childcare workers? Ensuring the future of the nation through the care of children and production of food are the most important jobs in our workforce.

The apology today was right and needed.

Australia is built on the coming together of so many cultures and races, we have our similarities and our differences, understanding them and knowing them goes a long way to removing racism and xenophobia.

Knowing the story of Aboriginal Australia is integral to reconciliation, knowing the story of the millions of immigrants that came and continue to come is just as important, and knowing the story of those who were born here and created this greatest of nations is not to be ignored.

Today’s apology is a continuation of our shared journey forward as a people who are all united by our similarities under our great Australian flag.

Let’s follow up the symbolic words with real action. It’s a funny thing, we often strongly note symbolic gestures but not the real action. You know, it’s the grand speech of Gettysburg that’s remembered, not the actual battle and the change that was supposed to follow. In fact, the change didn’t follow over in the US, which is what I hope doesn’t happen here. Even after the grand speeches and a civil war, the non-white people of America continued down a path of disenfranchisement…which 150 years later still continues.

Real change is the gaps between Australia’s people to be actually closed. Political parties preselecting candidates who can give real change. For instance, did you know it was actually the Nationals in Queensland…yes, the party who are not huge on symbolism, that don’t get so well recognised for their action…who had our first Aboriginal member of parliament way back in the 1970’s, the Liberals who had the first Aboriginal senator and the Democrats who had the last elected Aboriginal senator?

Follow up, Mr Rudd, on your well needed yet symbolic speech with real change, by ending the gaps between mainstream Australia and those who feel apart.

Let’s have a country where no-one by law is pushed away. It’s not a bad thing to have a plethora of cultures under one flag, just as a city has many suburbs of all differing qualities, what is bad if all are not treated equally by the law and allowed access to the same opportunities.