Jon Altman and Boyd Hunter examine changes in the socioeconomic status of Indigenous Australians during 1991-2001, a period that closely matches 'the reconciliation decade' using census data. Comparisons are made both of change in absolute wellbeing for the total Indigenous population, and of relative wellbeing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in five broad categories - employment, education, income, housing and health. The 'scorecard' shows that, in absolute terms, it is difficult to differentiate the performance of governments pre- and post-1996. But in relative terms - when comparing the relative wellbeing of Indigenous people as a whole with all other Australians - there is some disparity between the two periods, with the early period 1991-96 clearly outperforming the more recent period. While practical reconciliation forms the rhetorical basis for Indigenous policy development since 1996, there is no evidence that the Howard governments have delivered better outcomes for Indigenous Australians than their predecessors despite a period of rapid economic growth at the national level. It is of particular concern that some of the relative gains made between 1991 and 1996 appear to have been offset by the relatively poor performance of Indigenous outcomes between 1996 and 2001.