Fifteen years after Mabo, the spin-off is mired in legal complexity, writes Joel Gibson.
To sit in Rose Chown's tin hut on the banks of the Macquarie River is to get a sense of what it must have been like growing up here half a century ago, swinging from the gums on the riverbank into the dawdling current, fishing for cod and - if nothing nibbled the hook - dining instead on a pig or a chook or a pigeon.
Chown has such fond reveries of growing up here, and such nightmares about the lives of Aboriginal children today, she has spent the past two decades attempting to recreate her riverside nirvana for them; to give them a safe place away from the drugs and the violence of town life.
Nine months ago, that dream came a step closer. The disability pensioner, 58, was the toast of NSW Parliament House for a day, feted at a ceremony for her Wellington Wiradjuri group - the first traditional owners in Australia to make a native title claim under the Native Title Act.
After 13 years of negotiations that split Wellington's indigenous community, the Aboriginal Affairs minister, Paul Lynch, presented Chown with the title deeds to Wellington Common - 183 hectares of virgin land on the Macquarie River, home to her ancestors until the 1960s.
He declared it "a significant step in the reconciliation process".
Nine months later, however, the 300 or so members of the Wellington Wiradjuri group are still waiting to hear the next step.
Without means or know-how to develop the land, they accuse government - federal and state - of forgetting them and ignoring their 10-year plan to provide a future for local indigenous children. That plan includes proposals for two children's safe houses on the common, plus 12 rangers, fencing to stop illegal rubbish dumping, and the installation of hot water and sewerage systems.
Chown's letters to Lynch and his federal counterpart, Jenny Macklin, met with replies from the state department and the federal agency, the Dubbo Indigenous Co-ordination Centre, saying they had no relevant funding streams. Lynch's spokesman told the Herald the group should ask the department's regional manager for guidance to other agencies that might help.
From December, when a nearby garbage depot begins charging fees, Chown fears the piles of TVs, car parts, microwaves and kangaroo carcasses on the common will multiply.
"They've all started to pass the buck," she said. "After 17 years of struggling for this we think we've earned the right to deal with government directly. We think groups like us should be dealt with on a national level."
She points over her shoulder to some new-born horses. "Those young foals in that paddock are having a better time than our kids."
The resources boom has spawned a series of high-profile deals between mining companies and traditional owners, creating the impression that - 15 years after a gardener called Eddie Koiki Mabo successfully challenged the legal fiction of terra nullius in the Torres Strait - native title is alive and well.
The Martu people, traditional owners in Western Australia's Western Desert, this year negotiated jobs and 10 per cent equity in Reward Minerals in return for allowing the company to mine potash at Lake Disappointment. The deal was negotiated by an Aboriginal investment banker, Joe Procter.
At Argyle in the East Kimberley, Rio Tinto and the Miriwung and Gidja peoples signed a 2005 deal with indigenous employment targets and financial compensation to be paid into trusts for income, financial literacy training, education and community development.
To Rose Chown and the Wellington Common Wiradjuri, however, these are gleaming examples from the other end of the pool. And then there are the claims rejected. At last count, 505 native title claims were sitting dormant with the Federal Court, none of them listed for hearing. The National Native Title Tribunal estimates it would take 30 years to clear them all through the courts. In NSW, only two native title applicants have had court victories - the Githabul, near the Queensland border, and the Dunghutti, at Crescent Head. Since 2004, NSW has reduced the number of claims from 64 to 35, while some overlapping claims are made inactive by conflicts between rival applicants.
In NSW, the native title boss, Warren Mundine, accuses governments and mining companies of exploiting division within communities to negotiate agreements acceptable to only a handful of traditional owners, leaving bitterness - and big holes in the ground. "Every community has divisions, black or white. So it's easy to find dissent and to hive the applicants off from the claimant group … Some companies think they can get away with blue murder in NSW. It's a disgrace," said Mundine, a former national president of the ALP. He said deals in the Pilbara provided many Aboriginal jobs, but many in the Hunter Valley, for example, did not.
The Aboriginal scholar, Marcia Langton, paints a picture of a wild west frontier in Western Australia, where the only thing standing between multinational resources giants and traditional owners is a handful of underpaid "baby lawyers who just got off surfboards".
"The gas and oil in the Kimberley is worth tens of billions," Langton says. "The Aboriginal people there have got one representative body and they have to deal with Shell, which funds militias in Africa. Is that what we want in Australia? Do we want the Kimberley wiped off the face of the earth by energy companies?"
The system was so bogged down and native title representative bodies so under-funded that mining companies had begun paying claimants' costs to speed up the legal process. At a Sydney forum in March, Langton was as scathing of federal court judges who used "old eugenicist thinking" to test people's Aboriginality as she was of Aboriginal groups that shoot themselves in the foot with internal brawling.
The former federal court judge, Ron Merkel QC, was just as frank, telling the same forum the High Court had "unwittingly and unintentionally created a factual and legal nightmare", and the evidence needed to prove cases had become "horrendously difficult", "absurd" and "unique in our legal system".
"The fact remains that native title is not working in Australia today … While governments are working out a system and refining it, the very people for whom native title is of the essence are dying. I can't imagine a crueller and more unjust outcome than that."
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Tom Calma, said "the Native Title Act tends to humiliate the people it should serve. The most disadvantaged people in Australia face one of the most complex pieces of legislation in the country to gain recognition of their native title."
The Federal Government appeared to have heeded the call in May, when Macklin appointed a working group to advise on a six-month reform of native title. It includes Langton, the mining consultant Ian Williams, the Central Land Council's David Ross, BHP Billiton's Chris Cottier and WA native title boss Glen Kelly. Contrary to initial reports, however, they will not look at a root-and-branch overhaul of the Native Title Act.
Instead, terms of reference are limited to ensuring benefits accruing from native title "contribute to addressing the economic and social disadvantage facing the indigenous community and are delivered to current and future generations". Also, the group will consider whether template agreements and principles should be established to guide the making of agreements.
Macklin told the Herald this week she commissioned the group to "make sure the system works more effectively so we don't have the sorts of delays that have made it difficult for all parties".
In the meantime, the system limps on. The National Native Title Tribunal encourages claimants to negotiate agreements directly with with governments and developers - as in the Wellington Common agreement - rather than persevere with the full court process. At an average five years, they take two years less than the court process, and they don't carry the evidentiary burdens of the Native Title Act.
But the Wellington agreement was unusual, the tribunal's NSW manager Frank Russo, says, because it was not a result of a native title determination and did not specify what would happen after the land was granted. Because the native title claim was held up by a rival group, the NSW Government eventually used the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to grant freehold title to the Wellington Wiradjuri.
While there is a federal pool to fund successful native title claimants, there is none for those who take the negotiated agreement path. They have to nut it out as part of the agreement. "One of the advantages of agreements [as opposed to court determinations] is that what happens afterwards can be settled. The signing of the agreement isn't the end of the process but the beginning of a new process," Russo said.
Chown and her fellow claimants, in other words, have fallen through one of the many cracks in a system papered over by those with an interest in making it work.
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Githabul people
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Child abuse leads to land dispute, by Phil Mercer, Foreign Correspondent - The National - 10th July 2008
SYDNEY // Aboriginal leaders have accused the Australian government of plotting to steal tribal land under a controversial policy to combat child abuse in remote settlements.
Troops, police officers and medical teams were sent to more than 70 indigenous communities in Australia’s Northern Territory in June 2007 to oversee new restrictions.
The intervention was an emergency response to a damning report about widespread child exploitation and paedophilia in isolated areas. Bans on alcohol and pornography were brought in and strict controls introduced on how Aborigines could spend welfare payments to try to stop family budgets being frittered away.
The government has also threatened to withdraw funding to aboriginal communities deemed “economically unviable”.
The radical reforms have been welcomed by some communities but others have said the measures are draconian and intended to force Aborigines from their traditional homelands. Many Aborigines have already started to move away from their communities to escape the restrictions and the perceived nannying by the state, a move some say was intentional.
“We see the intervention as a land grab,” said Ray Minniecon, an aboriginal pastor.
“We thought it wasn’t about the protection of our children but was more about the ways in which the government could take our land for economic purposes or, as many of our people think, about dumping nuclear waste or for mining.”
Ministers have strongly denied the allegations but furious indigenous leaders have threatened to close Uluru, one of Australia’s most popular tourist destinations, to protest against the government’s approach.
Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a giant sandstone formation in Australia’s dusty red centre and is managed by its custodians, the Anangu people.
“We’ve got to take some affirmative action to stop this rubbish, racist piece of legislation,” said Vince Forrester, a community elder. “We’re going to stop it. We’re going to throw a big rock on top of the tourist industry. No one will climb Uluru ever again.”
The colossal red rock is a World Heritage-listed site south-west of the desert town of Alice Springs and is sacred to Aborigines, who sense the undying power of ancestral spirits.
Land lies at the heart of indigenous culture in Australia. The earth is seen as a living, breathing mass, full of secrets and wisdom.
Uluru was created, according to one theory, after a battle between rival tribes. The earth was consumed by so much pain and sorrow, that it rose up to form a rock the colour of blood.
“The land is our mother,” explained Mr Minniecon. “When a baby is born one of the rituals the mother does is she takes the placenta and she buries it in the earth and that one little act makes sure that the child is connected to the country.
“Old people can point to a certain spot on the map and they’ll say ‘look, that’s where my mother laid me down, that’s my country, that’s where I come from. That’s who I am’.”
These rock solid beliefs have been severely tested by more than 200 years of European settlement. Australia’s colonial masters brought with them attitudes to land that Aborigines found impossible to understand.
“There’s never been a view in aboriginal culture that land is a commodity,” said Chris Cunneen of the University of New South Wales. “It’s inconceivable that you could buy and sell the land from which you come. It would be like arguing that you could buy and sell your mother or your father.”
Australia’s European colonisers declared that the empty continent belonged to no one. They had the view that because the indigenous people did not work the land, they therefore had no connection to it. It was a convenient doctrine, which allowed the settlers to help themselves to vast chunks of territory. Dispossessed and alienated, Australia’s Aborigines have suffered ever since. They make up two per cent of the national population and endure disproportionately high rates of ill health, unemployment and imprisonment.
The indigenous land rights movement began to agitate for change in the 1970s. Negotiated settlements with the authorities allow tribal groups to live on customary land in large parts of northern Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and parts of South Australia.
Last September, the Githabul people of eastern Australia won a 10-year battle for ownership of pristine rainforests and a sacred mountain in one of the country’s biggest land treaties, which gave them the right to hunt and carry out traditional ceremonies.
Lindsay Bookie, the chairman of the Central Land Council, a statutory body that protects the interests of Aborigines, believes that encouraging young people to understand their organic connection to the earth could stop them succumbing to alcohol and drugs.
“Aboriginal kids in the bush are very keen on the ceremonies and to understand their country but not our younger people in town,” Mr Bookie said. “They’re into their European ways and sniffing petrol. The drug problem is pretty bad, young people smoking dope all the time.
“The land is the mother of creation. I feel proud when I look at the land and talking to people about it. Our spirituality is still strong.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Githabul people
Troops, police officers and medical teams were sent to more than 70 indigenous communities in Australia’s Northern Territory in June 2007 to oversee new restrictions.
The intervention was an emergency response to a damning report about widespread child exploitation and paedophilia in isolated areas. Bans on alcohol and pornography were brought in and strict controls introduced on how Aborigines could spend welfare payments to try to stop family budgets being frittered away.
The government has also threatened to withdraw funding to aboriginal communities deemed “economically unviable”.
The radical reforms have been welcomed by some communities but others have said the measures are draconian and intended to force Aborigines from their traditional homelands. Many Aborigines have already started to move away from their communities to escape the restrictions and the perceived nannying by the state, a move some say was intentional.
“We see the intervention as a land grab,” said Ray Minniecon, an aboriginal pastor.
“We thought it wasn’t about the protection of our children but was more about the ways in which the government could take our land for economic purposes or, as many of our people think, about dumping nuclear waste or for mining.”
Ministers have strongly denied the allegations but furious indigenous leaders have threatened to close Uluru, one of Australia’s most popular tourist destinations, to protest against the government’s approach.
Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a giant sandstone formation in Australia’s dusty red centre and is managed by its custodians, the Anangu people.
“We’ve got to take some affirmative action to stop this rubbish, racist piece of legislation,” said Vince Forrester, a community elder. “We’re going to stop it. We’re going to throw a big rock on top of the tourist industry. No one will climb Uluru ever again.”
The colossal red rock is a World Heritage-listed site south-west of the desert town of Alice Springs and is sacred to Aborigines, who sense the undying power of ancestral spirits.
Land lies at the heart of indigenous culture in Australia. The earth is seen as a living, breathing mass, full of secrets and wisdom.
Uluru was created, according to one theory, after a battle between rival tribes. The earth was consumed by so much pain and sorrow, that it rose up to form a rock the colour of blood.
“The land is our mother,” explained Mr Minniecon. “When a baby is born one of the rituals the mother does is she takes the placenta and she buries it in the earth and that one little act makes sure that the child is connected to the country.
“Old people can point to a certain spot on the map and they’ll say ‘look, that’s where my mother laid me down, that’s my country, that’s where I come from. That’s who I am’.”
These rock solid beliefs have been severely tested by more than 200 years of European settlement. Australia’s colonial masters brought with them attitudes to land that Aborigines found impossible to understand.
“There’s never been a view in aboriginal culture that land is a commodity,” said Chris Cunneen of the University of New South Wales. “It’s inconceivable that you could buy and sell the land from which you come. It would be like arguing that you could buy and sell your mother or your father.”
Australia’s European colonisers declared that the empty continent belonged to no one. They had the view that because the indigenous people did not work the land, they therefore had no connection to it. It was a convenient doctrine, which allowed the settlers to help themselves to vast chunks of territory. Dispossessed and alienated, Australia’s Aborigines have suffered ever since. They make up two per cent of the national population and endure disproportionately high rates of ill health, unemployment and imprisonment.
The indigenous land rights movement began to agitate for change in the 1970s. Negotiated settlements with the authorities allow tribal groups to live on customary land in large parts of northern Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and parts of South Australia.
Last September, the Githabul people of eastern Australia won a 10-year battle for ownership of pristine rainforests and a sacred mountain in one of the country’s biggest land treaties, which gave them the right to hunt and carry out traditional ceremonies.
Lindsay Bookie, the chairman of the Central Land Council, a statutory body that protects the interests of Aborigines, believes that encouraging young people to understand their organic connection to the earth could stop them succumbing to alcohol and drugs.
“Aboriginal kids in the bush are very keen on the ceremonies and to understand their country but not our younger people in town,” Mr Bookie said. “They’re into their European ways and sniffing petrol. The drug problem is pretty bad, young people smoking dope all the time.
“The land is the mother of creation. I feel proud when I look at the land and talking to people about it. Our spirituality is still strong.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Githabul people
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Kevin Rudd says sorry, by Dylan Welch - The Sydney Morning Herald - 13th February 2008
Australia has formally apologised to the stolen generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.
The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.
Both Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin received a standing ovation as they entered the Great Hall before the Prime Minister delivered the speech.
The reading of the 361-word apology was completed by 9.03am and was watched by hundreds of parliamentarians, former prime ministers and representatives of the indigenous community.
Former prime ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and Sir William Deane were all seated on the floor of the Parliament as well as 17 people representing the stolen generation.
In another address directly after reading the apology, Mr Rudd spoke of removing a "stain from the soul of Australia".
"The time has come, well and truly come ... for all Australians, those who are indigenous and those who are not to come together, truly reconcile and together build a truly great nation."
The Prime Minister also discussed the first-hand accounts in the Keating government-sponsored report Bringing Them Home.
"There is something terribly primal about these first-hand accounts. The pain is searing, it screams from the pages - the hurt, the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental sense of humanity.
"These stories cry out to be heard, they cry out for an apology.
"Instead from the nation's Parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.
"A view that somehow we the Parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong.
"A view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side.
"To leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.
"But the stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.
"But as of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end."
At 9.28pm Mr Rudd finished his address, and was greeted by loud and lasting applause by both sides of the house.
He reached across the house's table and shook the hand of Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson before returning to the front bench, where he himself applauded.
Dr Nelson then stood and delivered a speech in support of the apology.
"We will be at our best today, and every day, if we call to place ourselves in the shoes of others," he said, "imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect.
"We cannot from the comfort of the 21st century begin to imagine what they overcome, indigenous and non-indigenous to give us what we have and make us who we are.
"We do know that language, disease, ignorance, good intentions, basic human prejudices and a cultural and technological chasm combined to create a harshness exceed only by the land.
"In saying we are sorry, and deeply sorry, we remind ourselves that each generation lives in ignorance of the long-term consequences of its actions."
At the end of Mr Rudds's speech, all MPs stood except for the Liberal MP Chris Pearce. Mr Pearce did stand after Dr Nelson's speech.
Liberal MPs Wilson Tuckey and Don Randall were not in the chamber.
Martin Place
At Martin Place in Sydney, hundreds of Sydneysiders from all walks of life gathered to watch the Sorry Day celebrations holding Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
Men and women in business suits, schoolchildren and other passers-by of all different backgrounds cried, smiled and stood in respect as they listened to Mr Rudd apologise.
Lawn at Parliament House
Many thousands more assembled on a lawn in front of Parliament House to watch the apology on a big screen. As Mr Rudd delivered the first of three sorrys, loud applause and cheering rang out.
Aboriginal flags and Australian flags coloured the air and as Mr Rudd closed his address, the crowd rose to their feet in applause. It was a standing ovation. Many were crying, most were smiling and others just quietly said yes.
As Dr Nelson took the microphone, booing was heard. One woman said he shouldn't have been allowed to speak.
Helen Ford, 70, from Beacon Hill said Mr Rudd's speech was magnificent.
"Mr Rudd's speech was just magnificent. It's a wonderful day. Pity about the Opposition speech."
Ray Finn, 52, from Oodnadatta, South Australia said: "My family had been affected directly and I felt like the chain had finally broke from us.
"There's still racism to deal with but hopefully from this day we'll go forward together.''
Torres Straits Islander Lydia George, from Erub Island, said: "The first speech was very symbolic. The second speaker tarnished it. I was thinking of my granddaughter and her future is now, not tomorrow. She'll face a new future that will be bright. the healing process has began.''
Wilson Tuckey
Mr Rudd's speech was not greeted with unanimous approval, however, with Mr Tuckey telling Sky News shortly before 9am he doubted the speech - which has bipartisan support - would change anything.
"So the Prime Minister reads a speech, apparently some people stand up and sit down and then a miracle happens over night, there'll be no petrol sniffing ... and girls can sleep safely in the family bed at night," he said.
When asked by Sky News if he supported the apology, a technical error occurred, with Mr Tuckey telling the camera he was unable to hear the question.
- with Edmund Tadros, Yuko Narushima, Phillip Hudson and AAP
TOMORROW: Sydney Morning Herald souvenir Sorry Day edition.
Media Man Australia Profile
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.
Both Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin received a standing ovation as they entered the Great Hall before the Prime Minister delivered the speech.
The reading of the 361-word apology was completed by 9.03am and was watched by hundreds of parliamentarians, former prime ministers and representatives of the indigenous community.
Former prime ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and Sir William Deane were all seated on the floor of the Parliament as well as 17 people representing the stolen generation.
In another address directly after reading the apology, Mr Rudd spoke of removing a "stain from the soul of Australia".
"The time has come, well and truly come ... for all Australians, those who are indigenous and those who are not to come together, truly reconcile and together build a truly great nation."
The Prime Minister also discussed the first-hand accounts in the Keating government-sponsored report Bringing Them Home.
"There is something terribly primal about these first-hand accounts. The pain is searing, it screams from the pages - the hurt, the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental sense of humanity.
"These stories cry out to be heard, they cry out for an apology.
"Instead from the nation's Parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.
"A view that somehow we the Parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong.
"A view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side.
"To leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.
"But the stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.
"But as of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end."
At 9.28pm Mr Rudd finished his address, and was greeted by loud and lasting applause by both sides of the house.
He reached across the house's table and shook the hand of Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson before returning to the front bench, where he himself applauded.
Dr Nelson then stood and delivered a speech in support of the apology.
"We will be at our best today, and every day, if we call to place ourselves in the shoes of others," he said, "imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect.
"We cannot from the comfort of the 21st century begin to imagine what they overcome, indigenous and non-indigenous to give us what we have and make us who we are.
"We do know that language, disease, ignorance, good intentions, basic human prejudices and a cultural and technological chasm combined to create a harshness exceed only by the land.
"In saying we are sorry, and deeply sorry, we remind ourselves that each generation lives in ignorance of the long-term consequences of its actions."
At the end of Mr Rudds's speech, all MPs stood except for the Liberal MP Chris Pearce. Mr Pearce did stand after Dr Nelson's speech.
Liberal MPs Wilson Tuckey and Don Randall were not in the chamber.
Martin Place
At Martin Place in Sydney, hundreds of Sydneysiders from all walks of life gathered to watch the Sorry Day celebrations holding Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
Men and women in business suits, schoolchildren and other passers-by of all different backgrounds cried, smiled and stood in respect as they listened to Mr Rudd apologise.
Lawn at Parliament House
Many thousands more assembled on a lawn in front of Parliament House to watch the apology on a big screen. As Mr Rudd delivered the first of three sorrys, loud applause and cheering rang out.
Aboriginal flags and Australian flags coloured the air and as Mr Rudd closed his address, the crowd rose to their feet in applause. It was a standing ovation. Many were crying, most were smiling and others just quietly said yes.
As Dr Nelson took the microphone, booing was heard. One woman said he shouldn't have been allowed to speak.
Helen Ford, 70, from Beacon Hill said Mr Rudd's speech was magnificent.
"Mr Rudd's speech was just magnificent. It's a wonderful day. Pity about the Opposition speech."
Ray Finn, 52, from Oodnadatta, South Australia said: "My family had been affected directly and I felt like the chain had finally broke from us.
"There's still racism to deal with but hopefully from this day we'll go forward together.''
Torres Straits Islander Lydia George, from Erub Island, said: "The first speech was very symbolic. The second speaker tarnished it. I was thinking of my granddaughter and her future is now, not tomorrow. She'll face a new future that will be bright. the healing process has began.''
Wilson Tuckey
Mr Rudd's speech was not greeted with unanimous approval, however, with Mr Tuckey telling Sky News shortly before 9am he doubted the speech - which has bipartisan support - would change anything.
"So the Prime Minister reads a speech, apparently some people stand up and sit down and then a miracle happens over night, there'll be no petrol sniffing ... and girls can sleep safely in the family bed at night," he said.
When asked by Sky News if he supported the apology, a technical error occurred, with Mr Tuckey telling the camera he was unable to hear the question.
- with Edmund Tadros, Yuko Narushima, Phillip Hudson and AAP
TOMORROW: Sydney Morning Herald souvenir Sorry Day edition.
Media Man Australia Profile
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
Rudd delivers historic apology, by Samantha Maiden and AAP - 13th February 2008 - The Australian
KEVIN Rudd has delivered an emphatic apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the parliament, witnessed by thousands of indigenous people in Canberra.
A packed Parliament House rose to its feet, applauding, whooping and whistling at the end of the Prime Minister's half-hour speech delivering the motion. Mr Rudd in turn clapped the public gallery.
And hundreds of indigenous people camped outside Parliament House gave a standing ovation and hugged each other after the long-awaited apology.
Thousands of people have watched the proceedings at special events and on big screens in cities around Australia.
However, several Liberal MPs appear to have boycotted the historic apology.
Mr Rudd offered a broad apology to all Aborigines and the Stolen Generations for their "profound grief, suffering and loss" in a carefully worded statement that has divided indigenous leaders.
The Prime Minister, who last night tabled the 360-word apology, used the word "sorry" three times in the motion read to parliament.
"We reflect on their past mistreatment," he said. "We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations, this blemished chapter in our nation's history."
The apology also looks forward, heralding a renewed and united effort to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in "life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity".
Mr Rudd then delivered a longer address speaking to the motion, and was followed in support by Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.
The leaders then moved among indigenous guests in the public gallery, hugging and shaking hands, and presented the parliament with a gift from the Stolen Generations.
Mr Rudd's speech supporting the motion also offered apologies to the Stolen Generations.
“As Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry,” he concluded. “On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the parliament of Australia, I am sorry. I offer you this apology without qualification.”
At the beginning, Mr Rudd said the apology was meant in the “true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia.”
“Last year I made a commitment to the Australian people that if we formed the next government of the commonwealth we would in parliament say sorry to the stolen generations,” he said.
“I said we would do so early in the life of the new parliament...I honour that commitment by doing so at the commencement of the 42nd parliament of the commonwealth.
“Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians - those who are indigenous and those who are not - to come together, to reconcile and together build a new future for our nation.”
Mr Rudd told the story of an elderly indigenous woman, part of the Stolen Generations, who he visited a few days ago.
“An elegant, eloquent and wonderful woman in her 80s full of life, full of funny stories despite what has happened in her life's journey,” the prime minister said.
Mr Rudd said his friend told him of the love and warmth she felt while growing up with her family in an Aboriginal community just outside Tennant Creek.
In the early 1930s, at the age of four, she remembers being taken away by “the welfare men”.
“Her family had feared that day and had dug holes in the creek bank where the children could run and hide,” Mr Rudd said.
They brought a truck, two white men and an Aboriginal stockman who found the hiding children and herded them into the truck.
She remembered her mother clinging onto the side of the truck, with tears flowing down her cheeks as it drove off. She never saw her mother again.
After living in Alice Springs for a “few years”, government policy changed and the young girl was handed over to the missions.
“The kids were simply told to line up in three lines ... those on the left were told they had become Catholics, those in the middle, Methodist and those on the right, Church of England,” Mr Rudd said.
“That's how the complex questions of post-reformation theology were resolved in the Australian outback in the 1930s. It was as crude as that.”
She didn't leave the island mission until she was 16 when she went to Darwin to work as a “domestic”.
When the Prime Minister asked his friend what of her story she wanted told she answered: “All mothers are important.”
“Families, keeping them together is very important, it's a good thing that you are surrounded by love and that love is passed down the generations - that's what gives you happiness.” This was just one of tens of thousands of stories of forced separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, Mr Rudd said.
“There is something terribly primal about these first-hand accounts, the pain is searing, it screams from the pages, the hurt the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental humanity,” he said.
Mr Rudd said the stories “cry out” to be heard and “cry out” for an apology.
“Instead from the nation's parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.
“A view that somehow we the parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong, a view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side to leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.
“The stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.
“As of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end.”
Mr Rudd said the stolen generations were human beings, not an intellectual curiosity - human beings deeply damaged by the decision of parliaments and governments.
“As of today the time for denial, the time for delay has at last come to an end,” he said.
“The nation is demanding of its political leadership to take us forward. Decency, human decency, universal human decency demands that the nation now steps forward to right an historical wrong.”
Mr Rudd said should there still be doubts, the historical record showed that between 1910 and 1970, between 10 and 30 per cent of indigenous children were forcibly taken from their mothers and fathers.
“As a result up to 50,000 children were forcibly taken from their families,” he said.
“This was a product of the deliberate, calculated policies of the states, as reflected in the explicit powers given to them under statute,” he said.
“This policy was taken to such extremes by some in administrative authority, that the forced extractions of children of so-called mixed lineage, was seen as a part of a broader policy of dealing with, quote, the problem of the Aboriginal population, unquote.”
Mr Rudd said one of the most notorious examples of this approach came from the Northern Territory Protector of Natives, who had stated: “Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half castes... will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white.”
Mr Rudd said the WA Protector of Natives had expressed similar views.
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
A packed Parliament House rose to its feet, applauding, whooping and whistling at the end of the Prime Minister's half-hour speech delivering the motion. Mr Rudd in turn clapped the public gallery.
And hundreds of indigenous people camped outside Parliament House gave a standing ovation and hugged each other after the long-awaited apology.
Thousands of people have watched the proceedings at special events and on big screens in cities around Australia.
However, several Liberal MPs appear to have boycotted the historic apology.
Mr Rudd offered a broad apology to all Aborigines and the Stolen Generations for their "profound grief, suffering and loss" in a carefully worded statement that has divided indigenous leaders.
The Prime Minister, who last night tabled the 360-word apology, used the word "sorry" three times in the motion read to parliament.
"We reflect on their past mistreatment," he said. "We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations, this blemished chapter in our nation's history."
The apology also looks forward, heralding a renewed and united effort to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in "life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity".
Mr Rudd then delivered a longer address speaking to the motion, and was followed in support by Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.
The leaders then moved among indigenous guests in the public gallery, hugging and shaking hands, and presented the parliament with a gift from the Stolen Generations.
Mr Rudd's speech supporting the motion also offered apologies to the Stolen Generations.
“As Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry,” he concluded. “On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the parliament of Australia, I am sorry. I offer you this apology without qualification.”
At the beginning, Mr Rudd said the apology was meant in the “true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia.”
“Last year I made a commitment to the Australian people that if we formed the next government of the commonwealth we would in parliament say sorry to the stolen generations,” he said.
“I said we would do so early in the life of the new parliament...I honour that commitment by doing so at the commencement of the 42nd parliament of the commonwealth.
“Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians - those who are indigenous and those who are not - to come together, to reconcile and together build a new future for our nation.”
Mr Rudd told the story of an elderly indigenous woman, part of the Stolen Generations, who he visited a few days ago.
“An elegant, eloquent and wonderful woman in her 80s full of life, full of funny stories despite what has happened in her life's journey,” the prime minister said.
Mr Rudd said his friend told him of the love and warmth she felt while growing up with her family in an Aboriginal community just outside Tennant Creek.
In the early 1930s, at the age of four, she remembers being taken away by “the welfare men”.
“Her family had feared that day and had dug holes in the creek bank where the children could run and hide,” Mr Rudd said.
They brought a truck, two white men and an Aboriginal stockman who found the hiding children and herded them into the truck.
She remembered her mother clinging onto the side of the truck, with tears flowing down her cheeks as it drove off. She never saw her mother again.
After living in Alice Springs for a “few years”, government policy changed and the young girl was handed over to the missions.
“The kids were simply told to line up in three lines ... those on the left were told they had become Catholics, those in the middle, Methodist and those on the right, Church of England,” Mr Rudd said.
“That's how the complex questions of post-reformation theology were resolved in the Australian outback in the 1930s. It was as crude as that.”
She didn't leave the island mission until she was 16 when she went to Darwin to work as a “domestic”.
When the Prime Minister asked his friend what of her story she wanted told she answered: “All mothers are important.”
“Families, keeping them together is very important, it's a good thing that you are surrounded by love and that love is passed down the generations - that's what gives you happiness.” This was just one of tens of thousands of stories of forced separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, Mr Rudd said.
“There is something terribly primal about these first-hand accounts, the pain is searing, it screams from the pages, the hurt the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental humanity,” he said.
Mr Rudd said the stories “cry out” to be heard and “cry out” for an apology.
“Instead from the nation's parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.
“A view that somehow we the parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong, a view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side to leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.
“The stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.
“As of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end.”
Mr Rudd said the stolen generations were human beings, not an intellectual curiosity - human beings deeply damaged by the decision of parliaments and governments.
“As of today the time for denial, the time for delay has at last come to an end,” he said.
“The nation is demanding of its political leadership to take us forward. Decency, human decency, universal human decency demands that the nation now steps forward to right an historical wrong.”
Mr Rudd said should there still be doubts, the historical record showed that between 1910 and 1970, between 10 and 30 per cent of indigenous children were forcibly taken from their mothers and fathers.
“As a result up to 50,000 children were forcibly taken from their families,” he said.
“This was a product of the deliberate, calculated policies of the states, as reflected in the explicit powers given to them under statute,” he said.
“This policy was taken to such extremes by some in administrative authority, that the forced extractions of children of so-called mixed lineage, was seen as a part of a broader policy of dealing with, quote, the problem of the Aboriginal population, unquote.”
Mr Rudd said one of the most notorious examples of this approach came from the Northern Territory Protector of Natives, who had stated: “Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half castes... will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white.”
Mr Rudd said the WA Protector of Natives had expressed similar views.
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
Rudd's apology revealed, by Stephanie Peatling - The Sydney Morning Herald - 12th Feb 2008
The wording of the apology Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make tomorrow to the stolen generations has been revealed.
"The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so move forward with confidence to the future," Mr Rudd's apology says.
The statement also contains the word 'sorry' which indigenous leaders said must be included.
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture we say sorry," the apology says.
The apology will be made at 9am tomorrow, but the full text was tabled in Parliament this evening.
The full apology:
"I give notice that, at the next sitting, I will move:
That
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."
Media Man Australia
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
"The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so move forward with confidence to the future," Mr Rudd's apology says.
The statement also contains the word 'sorry' which indigenous leaders said must be included.
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture we say sorry," the apology says.
The apology will be made at 9am tomorrow, but the full text was tabled in Parliament this evening.
The full apology:
"I give notice that, at the next sitting, I will move:
That
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."
Media Man Australia
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Howard to snub "sorry" day - The Age - 8th Feb 2008
Former prime minister John Howard will not travel to Canberra for the parliamentary apology to the Aboriginal stolen generations.
Mr Howard, who refused to issue a formal apology during his more than 11 years as prime minister, will not be in Federal Parliament on Wednesday despite a call from former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser that all former PMs attend.
Asked today if he would be there, Mr Howard said: "I won't be in Canberra next week."
He declined to answer further questions.
When in government Mr Howard refused to say sorry, saying he did not believe today's Australians should apologise for past policies.
He also argued that apologising could leave the government liable to compensation claims.
Mr Howard's stance strained his government's relationship with Aborigines. At a reconciliation convention in Melbourne in 1997, indigenous people famously heckled and turned their backs on him.
Mr Fraser, an ardent advocate of the apology and Aboriginal reconciliation, this week said it would make the apology more significant if former PMs were there to show their support.
"The more strongly this apology can be expressed, the more Aboriginal people believe that this really is supported by the nation as a whole," he said.
AAP understands former Labor PM Gough Whitlam will join Mr Fraser in parliament on the historic day.
Former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke cannot make it. His office said while he will be in Canberra for parliament's opening day on Tuesday, he had other "long-standing commitments" on Wednesday.
Paul Keating's office said the former Labor leader's schedule for next week had not yet been finalised.
Meanwhile, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin today said special arrangements were being put in place for the thousands of people expected to descend on parliament for the apology.
"To make sure everyone can join in the spirit of the day, big screens are being erected on the lawns in front of Parliament House," Ms Macklin said.
"Only around 800 people can be accommodated inside Parliament House, including the Great Hall and theatrette, so people wanting to be there on the day should consider watching from the lawn."
The proceedings are scheduled to start at 9am Wednesday, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will move a motion of apology on behalf of the Australian parliament.
Along Commonwealth Avenue and Kings Avenue in Canberra the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags will be raised.
After the apology, indigenous performers including country music singer Troy Cassar-Daly will entertain the crowds.
The ABC will broadcast the event nationally on television and radio, and SBS will broadcast it on television.
Events acknowledging and celebrating the national apology were being planned by state and territory governments around the country, Ms Macklin said.
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson today said he chose to support the apology to the stolen generations because the government convinced him it would not involve intergenerational guilt.
Mr Howard, who refused to issue a formal apology during his more than 11 years as prime minister, will not be in Federal Parliament on Wednesday despite a call from former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser that all former PMs attend.
Asked today if he would be there, Mr Howard said: "I won't be in Canberra next week."
He declined to answer further questions.
When in government Mr Howard refused to say sorry, saying he did not believe today's Australians should apologise for past policies.
He also argued that apologising could leave the government liable to compensation claims.
Mr Howard's stance strained his government's relationship with Aborigines. At a reconciliation convention in Melbourne in 1997, indigenous people famously heckled and turned their backs on him.
Mr Fraser, an ardent advocate of the apology and Aboriginal reconciliation, this week said it would make the apology more significant if former PMs were there to show their support.
"The more strongly this apology can be expressed, the more Aboriginal people believe that this really is supported by the nation as a whole," he said.
AAP understands former Labor PM Gough Whitlam will join Mr Fraser in parliament on the historic day.
Former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke cannot make it. His office said while he will be in Canberra for parliament's opening day on Tuesday, he had other "long-standing commitments" on Wednesday.
Paul Keating's office said the former Labor leader's schedule for next week had not yet been finalised.
Meanwhile, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin today said special arrangements were being put in place for the thousands of people expected to descend on parliament for the apology.
"To make sure everyone can join in the spirit of the day, big screens are being erected on the lawns in front of Parliament House," Ms Macklin said.
"Only around 800 people can be accommodated inside Parliament House, including the Great Hall and theatrette, so people wanting to be there on the day should consider watching from the lawn."
The proceedings are scheduled to start at 9am Wednesday, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will move a motion of apology on behalf of the Australian parliament.
Along Commonwealth Avenue and Kings Avenue in Canberra the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags will be raised.
After the apology, indigenous performers including country music singer Troy Cassar-Daly will entertain the crowds.
The ABC will broadcast the event nationally on television and radio, and SBS will broadcast it on television.
Events acknowledging and celebrating the national apology were being planned by state and territory governments around the country, Ms Macklin said.
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson today said he chose to support the apology to the stolen generations because the government convinced him it would not involve intergenerational guilt.
Apology still concerns Coalition MPs - The Sydney Morning Herald - 7th Feb 2008
Some opposition MPs still have concerns about the upcoming apology to the stolen generations, despite the coalition parties resolving to support it.
West Australian Liberal MP Don Randall conceded he was unconvinced the opposition should provide "in-principle" support for the apology.
"It is very hard to sign on to a contract, and that's what it is, until we see the set of words ..." he told reporters.
Asked whether he agreed with supporting the apology in principle, he replied: "Um, yeah, I'm getting there."
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson on Wednesday announced the coalition would support the apology, to be delivered in parliament on Wednesday.
The move ended 10 years of coalition opposition to saying sorry, which the Howard government refused to countenance.
Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott said the coalition had come to a "sensible" decision, but said it was important the apology reflected a genuine view of the past.
"Some kids were stolen, but some were rescued and some kids were helped, so you have to be true to the real history of our country, not to a fanciful history of our country," he told reporters.
WA Liberal Dennis Jensen said he would vote for an apology, but admitted he had reservations about using the word 'stolen', echoing concerns from Dr Nelson.
"I think separated is probably a better word than stolen, personally," he said.
"Stolen has a whole lot of other connotations associated with it."
Reconciliation Australia chief executive Barbara Livesey urged coalition MPs not to delay the apology's passage through parliament.
"It would be a great shame if there was a lengthy and unnecessary debate that meant that some people missed being there for the moment when the motion is actually passed by the parliament," Ms Livesey told AAP.
Meanwhile, frontbencher Nick Minchin said Malcolm Turnbull's decision to publicly support an apology without consulting his colleagues cost him the federal Liberal party leadership.
Mr Turnbull lost a party room ballot by three votes to Brendan Nelson last December.
"The issue with the leadership was not so much the apology per se, but the question of the role and the authority of the party room," Senator Minchin told ABC radio.
"We wanted a leader who would respect the authority of the party room and not announce changes in policy without proper consultation with the party room."
The ABC announced it would broadcast the apology live on TV, radio and online.
Media Man Austalia Profiles
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
West Australian Liberal MP Don Randall conceded he was unconvinced the opposition should provide "in-principle" support for the apology.
"It is very hard to sign on to a contract, and that's what it is, until we see the set of words ..." he told reporters.
Asked whether he agreed with supporting the apology in principle, he replied: "Um, yeah, I'm getting there."
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson on Wednesday announced the coalition would support the apology, to be delivered in parliament on Wednesday.
The move ended 10 years of coalition opposition to saying sorry, which the Howard government refused to countenance.
Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott said the coalition had come to a "sensible" decision, but said it was important the apology reflected a genuine view of the past.
"Some kids were stolen, but some were rescued and some kids were helped, so you have to be true to the real history of our country, not to a fanciful history of our country," he told reporters.
WA Liberal Dennis Jensen said he would vote for an apology, but admitted he had reservations about using the word 'stolen', echoing concerns from Dr Nelson.
"I think separated is probably a better word than stolen, personally," he said.
"Stolen has a whole lot of other connotations associated with it."
Reconciliation Australia chief executive Barbara Livesey urged coalition MPs not to delay the apology's passage through parliament.
"It would be a great shame if there was a lengthy and unnecessary debate that meant that some people missed being there for the moment when the motion is actually passed by the parliament," Ms Livesey told AAP.
Meanwhile, frontbencher Nick Minchin said Malcolm Turnbull's decision to publicly support an apology without consulting his colleagues cost him the federal Liberal party leadership.
Mr Turnbull lost a party room ballot by three votes to Brendan Nelson last December.
"The issue with the leadership was not so much the apology per se, but the question of the role and the authority of the party room," Senator Minchin told ABC radio.
"We wanted a leader who would respect the authority of the party room and not announce changes in policy without proper consultation with the party room."
The ABC announced it would broadcast the apology live on TV, radio and online.
Media Man Austalia Profiles
Aboriginal and Indigenous Media
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