Victorians Discover the Price of Reconciliation

There’s been a lot of heartfelt chatter in Australia about reconciliation - that noble-sounding term which I always took to mean “coming together,” but now apparently translates to “invoices”. 

Lots and lots of invoices.

Thanks to Australia’s first ever Indigenous Truth Telling Inquiry – an expensive guilt parade funded by the colonisers - we finally have a clearer picture of what reconciliation really means. 

The Yoorrook Justice Commission – which spent four years finding new and inventive ways to blame the British for everything short of Melbourne’s weather - tabled its final report in the Victorian Parliament late yesterday, making 100 recommendations.

I’ll go through some of them for you in a moment. 

But I want to give you some time to grab a tissue, because – seriously - these will make your eyes water.

While you’re bracing yourself for the recommendations, let’s start with the commission’s foundational thesis.

Victoria was never discovered by the British, never settled, and certainly never founded. 

 No, according to the report, it was illegally occupied.

 The report says …

“The taking of country and resources was violent as First Peoples were displaced and massacred by European settlers in the pursuit of their land and waters.”

The report insists that 237 years after the British set foot on these shores …

 “The legacy of colonisation is still manifest in every aspect of life.”

And no, they’re not referring to roads, plumbing or electricity.

Then the report makes this claim …