Will the new Labor government saying 'Sorry' to Indigenous Australians lead to lawsuits from the Aboriginals?

If the government says "Sorry", won't that mean that they accept full responsibility for what happened to the 'Stolen Generation'? If they accept full responsibility, won't that mean that Indigenous Australians can sue the government?

No its not a question to scare people it based on fact and Rudd needs to be careful how he words it.

New Zealand went through this exact same thing and as soon as the formal apology came the lawsuits came rolling in. Millions and Millions effecting both Catholic and Anglican churches, government at all levels.

The decisions of the time was based some horrendous issues of that time and we should not be held accountable. A bit like now, should we just let what's been happening to these children continue to happen.

So perhaps we may have to say sorry in the future as the Labour Party increases its spread of NT intervention to other states of Australia. Catch 22 what do u do?

Sad to watch but now that Alice Springs is dry there moving to Cooper Peedy.

Well.........ll_jenny

That sounds like a good compromise and well worded, sure as time goes by we will do things that we feel are in the best interest of somebody else that may be wrong in the longer term but is right at the time due to extreme factors.

the former prime minister stated that what had happened in the past was wrong in my books that was good enough for me, but the newly elected prime minister stated he would do it, so he has to ( but then again he stated he was going to stand up to the U.S.A and bring the troops home as well as all the other rubbish he promised) i think that the vultures in the legal profession will jump on the litigation bandwagon as soon as he says sorry not 4 the good of the aborigines but for the good of their bank books, then the suckers that fell for Kevin and Julia's tripe during the election should b made to sorry to the rest of us who didn't

are we talking about the Abos that live in the desert down under. FFS they are all too drunk to even learn to read let alone understand the implications of an apology.

Anyway apologies like this are only done to make the us whites feel better about ourselves.

Considering John Howard issued a "Statement of Sincere Regret" over the issue, in Parliament about five years ago, I don't think so.

is this a question that is being asked to scare people ?

Well Richo,

How about he words it like this ( or along the lines of )....

We the descendants of those who came to this country, acknowledge that while we ourselves are not responsible for their actions, just as you are not personally responsible for any crimes your ancestors committed against our ancestors, that wrongs were done against your people and for that we are truly sorry. We pledge to you, to work together, with the indigenous peoples and all non-indigenous peoples to strive for a harmonious population.

NB .. where i wrote the bit about :

"just as you are not personally responsible for any crimes your people committed against our ancestors"

I am not really happy with how I have worded it .. because it could be interpreted as me trying to say WELL YOU DID BAD THINGS TOO ... SO YOU'RE JUST AS BAD ...and I am NOT meaning too.

OMG Guy U obviously you dont know many aboriginals, that is just steriotyping them. Most aboriginals are nice and genuine people who are trying to live a normal life. Its people like you that make it hard for them. Why dont you go back to your small world!

Now to your question bubba boo, if the labor government do say sorry, it would be to apologise for the past. Its not that they are accepting full responsibility for the past, its that they are acknowleging that what the past government did was wrong. Im sure that is all the aboriginals want. I empathise with the aboriginals, cause what happen in the past must have been traumatic, especially when most where taken away due to ignorance of the governnment.

All the Libs can think of is greed & money!!!!!!

Say sorry now & move on or we'll be discussing this again in another 11yrs.

They've said it won't and they must know more about it than us so that's good enough for me. I don't even care if we do have to financially compensate a few thousand traumatised grown up children from the stolen generation - it should just come out of the huge fund set aside for politicians' superannuation instead of taxpayer's money. :) simple

But there's so much more to it than financial compensation and it really is very ugly and sad when people can only worry about that potential side of it. The Japanese wouldn't apologise to the Korean "comfort women" (sex slaves) from the war for the same reason and it made the world so very ashamed of them.