Sorry:is still the hardest word to say

Kevin Rudd wants to say “sorry” to Aborigines who were taken from their families, through what has now become known as the stolen generations.

But he isn’t finding that easy.

The Prime Minister hasn’t been able, so far, to respond to opposition demands that coalition members should see the wording of his apology, before they commit themselves to it.

Mr Rudd has asked Brendan Nelson to be patient. He has said the wording of the apology he is planning will be published today, on the notice paper for tomorrow’s sitting of parliament.

He says, too, that the precise words of the apology will be very important. Mr Rudd admits that, if he gets that wrong, a historic opportunity will be wasted.

Aborigines, mostly, have welcomed the fact that the government is planning an apology.

But their expectations are high. And any disappointment will be taken hard.

Isabel Coe, a veteran protestor, at the Aboriginal tent embassy on the lawns in front of the old parliament house in Canberra, for example, spelt it al out for Private Briefing yesterday.

“We still have sovreignty,” she said.

Kevin Rudd is adamant that his apology won’t open the door to compensation claims.

Equally, though, he is warning white Australians that improving the lot of their Aboriginal country-men will be expensive.

But he is determined to make a difference.

Rudd insists, though, that there will be a new dimension, in Labor’s approach to this issue.

He says he will be expecting “reciprocity” from Aboriginal people.

“From one end of this country to the other.

“We have never signed a piece of paper.”

The tent embassy, now in its 36th year, has expanded, hugely, over recent days.

It now looks like a beachside camping site, with brightly coloured tents, scattered across its lawns.

When Private Briefing visited the site yesterday, young aborigines, in one of the bigger tents, were attending a seminar on the meaning of the United Nations declaration on the rights of Aboriginal People. Their tutor had attended the UN session, at which that declaration was made, in September last year.

Aboriginal people, on the site, are planning a protest this evening, against the Howard government’s heavy handed “intervention” in the Northern Territory. That action was designed to protect children, living in settlements, against sexual predators, in their own communities.

That protest will be staged this evening outside the new parliament house, on the eve of the government’s Sorry Day, tomorrow.