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Rudd rules out compensation

By Michelle Grattan and Tony Wright

2 February 2008 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved to ensure the Government's historic apology to the stolen generations is not misread as opening the way to compensation.

"We will not, under any circumstances, be establishing any compensation arrangements or any compensation fund. Absolutely blunt on that," he declared yesterday.

But Aboriginal leader Mick Dodson said compensation would stay on the agenda.

The apology remained a source of division in the Liberal Party, with shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull giving notice he would strongly urge his colleagues to support it.

While leader Brendan Nelson was waiting to see the Government's wording, Mr Turnbull said, "I do support an apology", adding that he would "have a lot to say with my colleagues next week" when the party room met.

Dr Nelson gave his strongest hint of potential support, saying "it may, in fact, be something with which we will be quite comfortable".

A spokeswoman for Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the Government would sponsor a "modest number" of the stolen generations to come to Canberra for the February 13 apology.

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser will also be there. Another former PM, Gough Whitlam, said the apology was a step in the right direction, but Australia should look to Canada, which had done "much better for its indigenous inhabitants".

Mr Rudd would not say if the Government would be represented in court if people sought to use the apology in individual cases to back their argument for compensation.

If anyone were to use it to advance a legal case, "we would, of course, be robust in our legal advice that there is no basis for them to do so on the basis of the apology", he said.

"But since year dot, any individual in Australia is capable of taking any legal action against any government to seek compensation or redress for any matter," he said.

The reason the Government would not establish a compensation fund or arrangements was that "we've got to get this right - it's unfinished business for the nation.

"Aboriginal people were dealt a very raw deal through this. We need to make amendments for it. I will do that through an apology. It's then time to move on, and to move on through working together to close the gap in health, education outcomes for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia."

Mick Dodson, one of the key authors of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report on the stolen generations, said no one would lose their legal right to seek compensation, regardless of the Government's pledge that no compensation would accompany the apology.

Professor Dodson, director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University, told The Age compensation would remain on the agenda, whatever the Government said.

"When we made our recommendations (in the Bringing Them Home report), we talked about reparation, which is based on international human rights protocols," he said.

"Just because the Government says it will not establish a compensation fund doesn't mean anyone loses their legal rights."

However, Professor Dodson said most members of the stolen generations would have significant difficulties fighting in court because of a lack of solid proof.

"In many cases, records were poorly kept, lost or not kept at all, often quite deliberately," he said.

"The most important thing about what is about to happen is that the apology will represent a huge shift in the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia. It will be a wonderful platform to build on - a beginning to help address the obvious problems that exist across indigenous Australia."

Source: The Age

Further information: stolen generations issues page - includes news index and external links

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