12th ANU Reconciliation Lecture 2015: The three Rs on reconciliation: Respect, Rights and Recognition

The Honourable Kevin Rudd served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister (2007-2010, 2013) and as Foreign Minister (2010-2012). He led Australia’s response during the Global Financial Crisis, a response which was reviewed by the International Monetary Fund as the most effective stimulus strategy of all member states. Australia was the only major developed economy not to go into recession. Mr Rudd helped found the G20 (an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies) to drive the global response to the crisis, and which – in 2009 – helped prevent the crisis from spiraling into depression. Kevin Rudd is uniquely placed to offer his perspective on reconciliation in the Australian context as the Prime Minister who delivered one of the landmarks of our nation’s reconciliation journey – the National Apology to the Stolen Generations delivered on 13 February 2008. This was his first Parliamentary act as Prime Minister. In the 2015 ANU Reconciliation Lecture, Mr Rudd explored the role of symbols in our cultures and identities, and the fundamental need to link symbolic national gestures like the Apology with substantive actions and measurable outcomes, such as the Closing the Gap strategy to overcome Indigenous disadvantage. Mr Rudd examined the next step in Australian reconciliation – the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our nation’s Constitution, and the call for the inclusion of constitutional reforms as part of that process to shift the symbolic to the practical. He looked at the process to date and the need for a respectful, national discourse on recognition and rights. Mr Rudd offered his own perspective on the need for bipartisan, national political leadership to advance genuine reconciliation in Australia