Conducting a National Inquiry into Systemic Patterns of Human Rights Violation the Sydney Harbour Bridge alone.25 A skywriter wrote the word ‘Sorry’ in the sky above the bridge and the marchers. Later in the year over 300,000 marched in Melbourne. The National Inquiry had not only raised the awareness of Australians but it had changed their mindset and understanding. In 2008, more than a decade after the National Inquiry’s report, the new federal Labor Government made a formal National Apology to the Stolen Generations as the first item of business in the new parliament after the elections of November 2007.26 Tom Calma, then the HREOC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, said that the apology “tapped into the desire within the Australian community to make amends for the past”.27 Speaking of his facilitation of consultations between the federal Government and Stolen Generations groups since the Apology, he stated that the “overwhelming message from those meetings was that (the Apology) should be seen as the first step in a partnership”.28 Despite government selectivity in implementing the inquiry’s recommendations, there have been tangible commitments to reconciliation since the Apology, most notably as a national partnership plan for achieving equality in social and economic status, including health, education and employment, between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians (the “Closing the Gap” programme). The Australian experience of national inquiries establishes that the effectiveness of national inquiries must be measured from a long-term perspective. Reports and recommendations can remain alive for years, even decades, before they are implemented. In that context, follow-up is extremely important, ensuring that the issues continue to receive public attention. The role of the HREOC and of other organisations, such as NGOs and academic institutions, is critical for this.29 Photo by Michael Hopkinsii, reproduced under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license 92 25 See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy5cZ-IO0Eg and www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7bs_zdthsc. 26 For the text of the National Apology given by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008, see: http://australia.gov.au/ about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples. 27 ‘Hearing each other? The National Apology to the S tolen Generations one year on’; speech by Tom Calma to the Pre-Parliament Event “Melbourne: making a difference” in preparation for the Parliament of World Religions Conference; Melbourne, 8 February 2009; available at: www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/speech-hearing-each-other-national-apology-stolen-generationsone-year-2009. 28 ‘Let the healing begin: Response to government to the national apology to the Stolen Generations’; speech by Tom Calma at Parliament House, Canberra; 13 February 2008; available at: www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/response-governmentnational-apology-stolen-generations. 29 For example, the conference on the 10th anniversary of Bringing them home traced what had been done and what remained to be done a decade after the release of the report. See: Australian Indigenous Law Review, Vol. 12, Special Edition; available at: www.ilc.unsw.edu.au/publications/ailr/volume-12-special-edition.