The Canberra Multicultural Community Forum (CMCF) is delighted that the Federal Government has placed an apology to the stolen generations of Aboriginal children at the head of its Parliamentary agenda, and calls on the Opposition to give bi-partisan support to the move.
CMCF Chair Sam Wong said the issue had been a running sore on the body politic for more than 10 years, during which Australia’s indigenous people had had to wait for a change of government to see the apology implemented.
“Now the government has changed and I believe they deserve swift closure,” Mr Wong said. “There is nothing that the Rudd Government can do to fix inflation or counter rising interest rates on the first sitting day of Parliament.
“However, resolving this issue will unite the nation so that we can face these pressing national and international problems together.”
Suggestions by the Opposition’s Indigenous Affairs Spokesman, Tony Abbott, that the apology is a rush job are wrong, Mr Wong said. “We have had a decade to think about it.
“I do hope the Opposition will come on board and give its support for an apology which will be hugely significant to Australia’s indigenous people and of which the entire country can feel proud.”