Rudds apology

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Originally Posted by harro

As long as we leave?:eek:

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We could all go to New Zealand perhaps or perhaps organise leaky boats to take us back to merry old England:wasntme:

"It all happened a long time go " I wouldnt say that 1970 was a long time ago. I would think that in a court of law compensation will only apply to those who were directly wronged... not their relatives, and in this case if at all.

Secondly, even if some of theose removed were "removed from appalling family conditions where sexual and physical abuse were very real concerns?" then what of those who were removed due to government laws of forced assimilation. Surely being removed because you were of dark skin and a child and no other reason would be deserving an apology?

regards
Steve

all the soft skins are going to hate me...

all the rednecks will love it...

yall forgot my favorite ones....

we're sorry that as englishmen we conquested your country, it would have been so much better to allow the dutch to do it, just like tasmania.

We're sorry we didnt follow the dutch's example in tasmania.



Did you know that as of 1997 there were still 3 valid aboriginal hunting liscences issued in tasmania that were valid?

There are still Aboriginal hunting grounds on the mainland too.

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Originally Posted by wardy1

Do we not remove WHITE children from similar situations even now?

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In many cases sadly - no - DOCS leave them there and allow the abuse to continue, sometimes leading to death/murder...

I am not a racist.

I understand why the apology was important to the stolen generation, I don't understand why compensation is today.


Everyday when I get off the train to go to work I get the standardized 3 questions from different people all of indigenous descent, all of them in an agressive tone.

Hey bloke you got a dollar?
Het bloke you got a smoke?
Hey man you wanna score?

If these folk get compensated where will the money go? I can guarantee not to the community.

The big question

Has the Aboriginal race benifitted in any way from "white mans" colonisation of Australia? Have they ever said Thankyou?

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Originally Posted by barney

Krudd's so called "motion" that was actually a speech, i thought was formulated to make the evil white man feel good about himself again.
i reckon although a lot of people shunned brendan nelson's speech, his was the closest to the truth.i didn't vote for Krudd and i am glad to see that my judgement was right. with this and Kyoto, he will send this country broke!
back in the day, there would have been an element of racism involved. as nelson said, they probably were under the misguided impression they were doing what was best for these children.
hindsight shows us what a ridiculous policy it was to take half-caste children away from their parents. white Australia were told they weren't accepted by their extended families.
this was also the era when we were heavily under british direction and influenced by their policies. testing nuclear bombs in our back yard for instance.
i cannot be held responsible for the actions of my forefathers, and i have nothing to be $orry about.
i do see that what happened to these poor little kids was wrong and whatever it takes, steps should be made to make restitution.
compensation has lost it's meaning in this day and age, these days it seems it's meaning is closer to "shut up" money.
how can you compensate someone for this sort of regime? i suppose everyone has their price!
i don't know how the majority of aboriginal people feel about this, the rent-a-crown we saw on the news may not be indicative of the wider aboriginal community. i hope i'm wrong and it magically fixes everything.
there are members of this forum and the LROC that will be directly affected by this, some of them i know and would call friends, and i hope for their sake, this day makes a difference to them.
it's people like Mick Dodson that will ruin it for everyone and spoil any hope of reconcilliation that may have been in the sights today.

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Barney,
I agree Brendon Nelsons speech made more sense and contained more moderation. It is sad that an apology can not be made without money coming into the equation. And you are right, talk to some of the wider community. It seems our country is run by minoritys not the majority like it is supposed to be under the Westminster system.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

There are still Aboriginal hunting grounds on the mainland too.

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I do not quite think that is what he meant by aboriginal hunting ground(licence to hunt aboriginals):o
Should never have occured and while we can make jokes was a tragedy.

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Originally Posted by waynep

I watched the speech today.
I'm disappointed, but not in the speech.
I'm disappointed in some of the attitudes displayed in the previous posts.
I thought the country had grown up a bit today but there's clearly work to do yet.

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I am with waynep. Disappointed at some of the attitudes displayed on this forum. :( :no2:


Moving on...

As to the comment(s) regarding WWII victims: Germany is still paying compensation (60 years on) to people who were on forced labour during WWII in Germany. It is far better to have a compensation scheme than to have each effected individual going through the courts and the only people benefiting from all that would be the lawyers.

I thought that on an occasion where the intent was to offer sincere expressions of sorrow for the wrongful fracturing of lives and to create goodwill and a chance for harmony, Brendan Nelson's inappropriate references to sexual violence etcetera was tantamount to doing fart jokes at a funeral.

I wonder at the numbers of posters caught up in miser vision over compensation issues, despite the obvious pain and suffering expressed by those injured.

The Westminster system never ever allowed majority rule.
It allowed conference, but always the Sovereign could overrule.
In fact, we are not using the Westminster system strictly but a combination sharing the USA's federal system, and we are ruled by seven parliamentary monarchies with the States, Commonwealth, State Governors AND the Governor General ALL representing the Sovereign!
And it isn't English, it was introduced by the Saxons and evolved.

We don't have a direct democracy, and we elect those who then make these types of decisions on our behalf.
We then get to second guess and whinge.
Sometimes we get to applaud. Today was one of those days, for mine.