On average, Aborigines die 25 years younger than whites, child mortality is many times that of whites and many Aboriginal communities have no clean running water.

Australia is the only First World country on an international shame list of countries that still have endemic trachoma in children, which causes blindness.

Professor Colin Tatz, author of 'Obstacle Race - Aborigines in Sport', says most Australians would weep if they were taken on a tour of black sporting Australia today.

"The International Olympic Committee sent the Nigerian member of the IOC to Australia to examine conditions to see whether we were a fit and proper country to have the Olympics," he says.

"I think the Nigerian gentleman would have been shocked if he'd been taken to places where there isn't a blade of grass, where there isn't a set of goalposts, and where Aborigines kick around a piece of leather stuffed with paper because they haven't got footballs."

The subsequent IOC report made no reference to any of the above.

Instead, the Olympic organisers have co-opted Aboriginal art and artists, and others, to ensure the 'multicultural' face of the Games.

This facade is the shocking reality of Aboriginal Australia - not only its betrayal over land rights, but its continuing Third World status within a First World Country.

It was the case at the time of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and it is still the case today.