Sins of Successive Governments and Parliaments

On 13 February 2008, present Prime Minister Kevin Rudd followed the apology with a 20-minute speech to the house about the need for the apology, in which he admitted and apologised for the grave consequences of wrong policies of the Government of Australia:

“We apologise for the hurt, the pain and suffering that we, the parliament, have caused you by the laws that previous parliaments have enacted. We apologise for the indignity, the degradation and the humiliation these laws embodied. We offer this apology to the mothers, the fathers, the brothers, the sisters, the families and the communities whose lives were ripped apart by the actions of successive governments under successive parliaments.”