-----Original Message----- From: Trudy Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: news-clip <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Saturday, March 06, 1999 9:38 AM Subject: SMH - PM rejects black compromise PM rejects black compromise Date: 06/03/99 By MARGO KINGSTON in Canberra The Prime Minister yesterday rejected a compromise form of apology to the stolen generations suggested by his Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and cast doubts on whether he could meet his pledge to oversee reconciliation by 2001. His rejection has rocked the council, which sent him a draft of its proposed document of reconciliation this week ahead of public consultations. It included a heavily qualified general apology to Aboriginal people for past injustices designed to accommodate Mr Howard's refusal to budge on an apology. The draft states: "We hereby take this step: as one part of the nation expresses its sorrow and profoundly regrets the injustices of the past, so the other part accepts the apology and forgives." The wording was designed to give Mr Howard a way out of his refusal to apologise officially to the stolen generations by putting the word "apology" in the mouths of indigenous Australians. But after the draft document was leaked on Thursday, Mr Howard said he had already rejected some points by letter and would not countenance any apology. Mr Howard also appeared less confident that he could achieve his commitment made on election night last year to achieve reconciliation by 2001. Mr Howard said in a radio interview that he had written to the council saying that "there are some things in all of the documents that we can't possibly agree to". "I want to be positive. I would like to try and have a document of reconciliation. I don't know whether it can be achieved and I hope the debate does not get bogged down entirely on this issue of whether the present generation assumes responsibility for the claimed misdeeds of earlier generations." Council sources said an apology in some form was "pivotal" to Aboriginal participation in reconciliation, and that the compromise form of words was "the absolute bottom line". On election night last year, Mr Howard said: "I also want to commit myself very genuinely to the cause of true reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of Australia by the centenary of Federation." The next month he met the council and said there was "goodwill on the part of the Government" to achieve adocument of reconciliation by May 2000. The then Labor government and the Opposition unanimously agreed to establish the council in 1991 with the task of producing a document of reconciliation by the end of the century. But bipartisanship on reconciliation collapsed. Hopes for its revival rested on Mr Howard's election night commitment to the cause. The Opposition spokesman on Aboriginal affairs, Mr Daryl Melham, said the council's compromise "was designed to find an honourable way through the impasse for everyone". "This is not just John Howard, this is John Howard Prime Minister, and he is the one who is diminished by this." The chairman of ATSIC, Mr Gatjil Djerrkura, said last night: "I think it is fair to say relations between the current Federal Government and the Aboriginal peoples of this country have never been worse." In my opinion, this is because Aboriginal People and their supporters are continually giving ground to Howard in a vain attempt to achieve "Reconciliation" on grounds acceptable to Howard. HOWARD WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNLESS ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS FORFEIT ALL RIGHTS TO HIS "MAINSTREAM AUSTRALIA". HOWARD MUST BE TREATED AS AN UNCOMPROMISING AND FANATIC ENEMY, OR ALL CHANCES OF JUSTICE FOR OUR FIRST PEOPLES WILL BE LOST FOR GENERATIONS, IF NOT FOREVER. We must recognize the enemy before we can defeat him. Laurie Laurie and Desley Forde [EMAIL PROTECTED] This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
