Eventually, the new Leader of the Opposition, Liberal Party Leader Brendan Nelson, decided to support the apology - although some of his Liberal colleagues boycotted the parliamentary session. Worth pointing out at this stage that the Liberal Party in Australia bears no relation to us Lib Dems here in the UK!
Well, theoretically he supported the apology. But you can read his speech here and it is hardly heartfelt, or even making much pretence to be genuine.
As a sample quote:
In brutally harsh conditions, from the small number of early British settlers, our non-indigenous ancestors have given us a nation the envy of any in the world. But Aboriginal Australians made involuntary sacrifices, different but no less important, to make possible the economic and social development of our modern Australia.I think, as he did say he supported the apology, he needs to get in a bit more practice on how to say sorry properly.
Unsurprisingly, considering he also littered his speech with other far from apologetic references, it didn't go down too well. For a brief report on it, take a look at this news article.
1 comment:
Heh, as an Australian resident it's so interesting to read commentary on the apology from abroad. Your opinion echos my own: it was great (and very moving) to finally hear the Government apologise to the Stolen Generations, but a pity that the opposition leader wasn't more sincere about it.
P.S. I used to be a LibDem member when I lived in the UK, so it's great that I stumbled across your blog :)
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