Former President of the Uniting Church and former Justice of the High Court Sir Ronald Wilson tonight expressed his disappointment in the federal Government’s attitude to reconciliation and said he believed the time had come to resurrect the term "treaty".

Giving the annual May Macleod Lecture at the Uniting Church’s Centre for Ministry, North Parramatta, Sir Ronald said his hopes for the healing of the nation now rested in the Peoples’ Movement for Reconciliation.

Sir Ronald said the findings of the national inquiry into the "stolen generations" had been described more than once as a watershed in the life of this nation.

Sadly, he said, the publication of the report failed to change the attitude of the Government. "If only it could have opened its heart to hear the stories heard by the inquiry ... it would have appreciated the urgency of a warm and sympathetic response, directed to the healing of the heart."

Sir Ronald said many of the 54 recommendations in the report were specifically directed to "matters that we believed, from the experience of listening to 535 personal stories, would bear directly on healing the pain and restoring the dignity and self-respect of Aboriginal peoples".

Generally speaking, he said, the response of the Government had been one of robust rejection. "Its most publicised failure was the refusal of the Prime Minister to say ‘sorry’ and to lead the House of Representatives in a genuine acknowledgement and direct apology to the Stolen Generations for the removal policies.

"The reasons given for that refusal are patently inadequate."

He added to a "sad litany of actions" by the Government, which professedly supported reconciliation, two further matters: the submission to the Senate Committee on the Stolen Generations denying the existence of a Stolen Generation and the Government’s "unbelievably callous" response to claims for damages initiated in the courts by people genuinely believing themselves to be members of the Stolen Generations.

He said, "Now is the time for inspired leadership leading to action. If that leadership is lacking at the Corroboree this weekend, then the focus will remain on the Peoples’ Movement to continue to grow to a point where all Australian Governments will have no option but to act."