Many of those who implemented the policy genuinely believed they were acting for the best, but there was no mistaking the underlying racism: "Are we going to have a population of one million blacks in the Commonwealth?" asked the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, A O Neville (played in the film by Kenneth Branagh). "Or are we going to merge them in our white community and eventually forget that there ever were any Aborigines in Australia?" It was argued that separating a mixed-race child from its mother was no more cruel than separating a pup from a bitch, "no matter how frantic momentary grief might be at the time".