I’m far too sick at the moment to think of anything clever to say about it, but I’d like to just make sure everybody noticed that Australia’s Liberal Party-led government is set to issue a national apology for wrongs committed against the Aborigines.
a decade ago the Victorian Parliament had unanimously passed a motion moved by then Liberal premier Jeff Kennett apologising to Aboriginal people for removing children from their families.
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Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be made on behalf of the Australian Government “and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people”.
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But some prominent Opposition MPs defended the actions of churches and government agencies in removing children from their families.
Opposition health spokesman Joe Hockey said churches acted “only with good intentions”.
Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce went further, declaring that some indigenous people had actually benefited from the removal.
“If you are rescuing a child from a violent or from a threatening situation then that is the right thing for a state to do,” Mr Hockey told Radio 2UE.
Senator Joyce said an apology would be “an empty rhetorical statement for the chattering classes in the inner suburbs”.