February 13 in History
2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations
On this day in 2008, the Parliament of Australia issued a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for the forced removals of Australian Indigenous children (often referred to as the Stolen Generations) from their families by Australian federal and state government agencies. The apology was delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and is also referred to as the National Apology, or simply The Apology.
The Bringing Them Home (1997) report commissioned by the Keating Labor Government recommended an official apology be offered by the Australian Government for past government welfare policies which had separated children from parents on racial grounds. Keating’s Liberal successor John Howard received the report, but eschewed the use of the term ‘sorry’, believing a Parliamentary ‘apology’ would imply ‘intergenerational guilt’. He instead moved to draft a Parliamentary ‘Motion of Reconciliation’, in consultation with Democrat Senator Aden Ridgeway, the only Aboriginal person then sitting in the federal parliament.
On August 26, 1999, Howard moved the Motion of Reconciliation expressing “deep and sincere regret that indigenous Australians suffered injustices under the practices of past generations, and for the hurt and trauma that many indigenous people continue to feel as a consequence of those practices” and dedicating Parliament to the “cause of reconciliation” for historic mistreatment of Indigenous Australians as the “most blemished chapter” in Australian history.
From the outset, the Labor opposition, led by Kim Beazley, argued the need for an ‘apology’. Following Howard’s Motion of Reconciliation, Beazley moved to replace the motion of regret with an unreserved apology but was unsuccessful.[ The Liberal-National Howard government maintained its opposition to an ‘apology’ for the remainder of its term in office (1996-2007).
After the 2007 election, Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced on December 11, 2007, that the government would make an apology to Indigenous Australians, the wording of which would be decided in consultation with Aboriginal leaders.
The Liberal Party opposition was split on the issue. Its leader Brendan Nelson initially said that an apology would risk encouraging a “culture of guilt” in Australia. However, support for an apology was expressed by other senior Liberals, Nelson later said he supported the government apology. Following a party meeting, the Liberal Party as a whole expressed its support for an apology, and it achieved bipartisan consensus. Nelson stated, “I, on behalf of the Coalition, of the alternative government of Australia, are [sic] providing in-principle support for the offer of an apology to the forcibly removed generations of Aboriginal children.”
-Wikipedia
Photo Caption – Kevin Rudd on screen in Federation Square, Melbourne on February 13, 2008, apologizing to the stolen generations –flickr.com
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