Saying sorry is the easy part
Another one from Frank, this one is more upbeat because its about apologies. Just like the apology from the Prime Minister about the treatment of women in parliament. Frank brings us back to Kevin Rudd’s heartfelt apology to the first nations people.
You can even pretend you mean it
As you may well remember, Kevin was the full-bottle on apologies, and he was going to devote quite a bit of effort to do something about homelelssness as well, which he seems to have forgotten ever since. Thats probably because both these issues have been “solved”. Though kids are being taken at an even greater rate than before Kev’s apology, we know that the system is not cruel, obdurate and bludgeoning, but caring, sooothing and doing whatever it can to ensure that the vast cohort of those wrapped up in the ‘ industry” are well looked after. Like the bonusess to Aus Post executves, delivering mail is a big responsibility, and though you might be sacked as a woman for dispensing a cartier watch, you can be rest assured with corpoprate governance being the way it is, a fat, unsolicited bonus is all above board. Good for the executive team, and the public? Well that’s irrlelvant, they’re just lucky to pay taxes and have no say unlike the lobbyists.
Frank writes;
Happy anniversary y’all,
On this day, 13th of February, fourteen years ago, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, delivered the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples.
I can picture him, with mock humility (“Aw…shucks”) accepting the plaudits he will undoubtedly be showered with.
I have just revisited the page of noble sentiments on the Australian Parliament website. Five lines from the bottom there is this:
“A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.”
Sometimes its hard to say sorry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5-P9v3F8w Never say Never….
It was the Rudd Government (first and second) who took ownership of John Howard’s Intervention and extended it by a decade.
It was Julia Gillard who in February 2011 proclaimed that “Indigenous Australians have to change their behaviour….” It was Tony Abbott who declared that his government wasn’t going to support “life style choices”. It was Malcolm Turnbull who summarily dismissed the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It was the Morrison Government who snuck through Parliament the so-called “Economic Empowerment” amendments to the NT Land Rights legislation.
But no, injustices of the past must never, never be repeated.
A luta continua…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3AsyLD19YU
Obrigado,
World’s best practice, in implementing ‘sorry”
Frank
This is the Northern Territory of Australia today. Children–all Aboriginal–as young as 10 are kept in 3x3m cells for 20 hours a day. They are kept in a facility which was closed as an adult male prison as being “unfit for purpose”. No rehabilitation, let alone trauma informed care. Just walls and barbed wire. (Gracias Chips Mackinolty)
And an anti-dote to the Justin Bieber song (not many suitable ‘never never’ songs on Youtube)
From the air Don Dale might as well be Uighurstan. Though our “system” is caring because we know how to say sorry.