Phillip Adams' version:

ON this day, the first of January 2001, the Republic of Australia honours the Aboriginal people. We recognise their ancient occupation of this continent and pledge to respect their rights and culture in the centuries ahead.

Rather than fearing difference, we wish to be a people who celebrate it, recognising that diversity can give birth to creativity as much as conflict. Yet we do not seek to be a society that fears even the most vigorous debate, for it is through the testing of ideas, through endless argument and negotiation, that a nation retains its vitality and survives. But let our debates be based on mutual respect and a denial of violence. Australia wants no blood upon the wattle.

Let us be wise custodians of our landscape, the flora and fauna, the air and the water. Let us be a people of compassion and generosity of spirit. Let us undertake to guarantee our people education, health and the dignity of employment. Let there be affordable justice for all in a legal code without a death penalty. Let us encourage the freedoms of speech, association and religion, recognising that people have the right to believe in any god or gods they wish, or in no god at all.

Let us be a good neighbour in our region and a friend to the world. Whilst forever seeking to avoid war, let us retain the right to defend our borders and our values of pluralism, egalitarianism, tolerance and representative democracy. And let us preserve a tradition of irreverence, for a sense of humour is as important to a nation as the rule of law.

We recognise that this preamble is a direction we seek to travel rather than somewhere we have arrived. But that is what a modern nation should be. A sense of direction in a world of change. We seek to be a people who, whilst acknowledging the pain and inspiration of their history, move forward together in time.

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