Sorry

It was an interesting week in Canberra. The new Parliament met for the first time since the elections. And Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as promised, made "Sorry" the first order of business.

"Sorry" to the tens of thousands of aboriginals who as children were snatched away from their families to be raised in special schools and orphanages, a policy that lasted into the early 1960s.

The whole question of whether or not to apologize for this was a political football. But I thought Rudd did a good job, apologizing for the pain and dislocation it caused but without demonizing people who often thought (wrongly) that they were doing this for the good of the children. It was a moving day in Canberra and around the country; Rudd's speech was screened on the lawns of Parliament here in Canberra and in public venues all over Australia, drawing very large crowds to watch. I was touched particularly by the reaction of many older Aboriginals.

Aboriginal Australians on average live in deep, deep poverty, possibly even worse than some of the poorest Indian reservations in the US. One statistic I think really drives it home - life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians is 17 years less than for other Aussies.

So "sorry" doesn't end their problems. But it is a good step.