February 13, 2008, was the day my first child started school. My heart overflowed with sorrow, joy and hope.
It wasn’t the emotion of the school drop off. It was because that was the day Kevin Rudd turned a page of history and tried to mend the wounds of the past. The then Prime Minister apologised to the Stolen Generation – those Aboriginal children wrenched from their parents, who lost their family, their hope and their heritage.
In 2013 Julia Gillard delivered an apology to the victims of forced adoption – the unwed mothers and the children they were forced to give up between the 1950s and the 1970s. The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott together acknowledged their pain and loss – and our nation felt stronger, bigger and bolder.
I predict there will be apologies in the future. Here are the ‘sorrys’ I suspect - and hope - I will hear in the future.
February 12, 2020.
“I, Jennifer Rosseli, the 30th Prime Minster of Australia, stand before you today to honour the fallen. I stand for those who wounded by violence taking place in the violated sanctuary that is their home. Today it is time for Australia to apologise to those who cannot hear my words. It is time for our country and our parliament and our people to say 'stop', to say 'enough' and to say sorry to those who have been hurt by family violence.
To the women bashed, hurt, demeaned, stalked, stabbed, killed, hunted, barraged and beaten by partners who should have been caring and loving, I say sorry.
To the children hurt by violent fathers and occasionally mothers, I say sorry.
I say sorry that we did not protect you, that we did not hear you and that we could not always find safe sanctuaries where we could care for you. Our laws and policies were meant to assist - but they were not enough to protect.
We also say sorry to those we did not believe and did not respect. And to those we didn't want to hear.
It seems extraordinary, but only 30 years ago some Australian police forces didn’t even recognise domestic violence as a crime. Only five years ago, one woman a week was dying at the hands of her partner or ex partners. Women were seen as property and possessions instead of equal partners and were struck down by anger and retribution and cruelty.
We honour the Australian of the Year back then who is now our Minister for Women, Rosie Batty. It was on this day six years ago that Rosie's son Luke was killed by his father. Rosie's strength through loss helped and forced us to face the tragedy of loss that is domestic violence. She helped stop it from being a secret whispered shame. We thank her for refusing to be silenced by some who told her to keep her grief quiet. That Rosie stands beacon of hope today.
Today, we vow to be a peaceful country where women have the right to be safe in their home and children have a right to grow up protected and cherished. Rosie’s tireless efforts led to a Victorian Royal Commission five years ago, and we thank those who appeared and those who worked for change. They turned a tide that made us listen and acknowledge that misogyny and gender inequality are at the root of violence.
On this day, let our 46th parliament say sorry to those who have suffered so much and commit to an end to this scourge and the provision of safe places for those fleeing violence, and better services for those who need them."
February 13, 2030.
"Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to put forward the motion for a special apology on behalf of federal parliament of Australia.
I, Prime Minister Bonnie Barnett, am a proud Aboriginal woman whose great grandmother was a member of the Stolen Generations. As a young woman, I wept with relief when I heard the apology to my grandmother on this day 22 years ago. I felt healed.
Today, I want to say sorry to the children, who in the first decades of this century, were not stolen from their parents, but had knowledge of them withheld.
The ability to separate conception from sex was a wonderful discovery in reproductive medicine. It gave hope to the hopeless, the childless and those who had been told to be happy being aunties or uncles.
But it also enabled unethical behaviour.
To the children made here, and in far off lands, with sperm and eggs from unidentified donors, I say sorry that you cannot find out the details of your biological past. Many of you do not want or need this knowledge. But for those who do, we acknowledge it was wrong to not keep records, and to refuse to open files when you came of age.
While Australian states did eventually change the law to bring about open donation, other nations did not. The parents who brought you home from these lands loved you and wanted the best for you. It is not their fault that records were lost and denied to you.
To the children abandoned in Thailand, India, South America and Russia, I say sorry. We now welcome you home to Australia. Even if you do not have DNA from our nation you are now part of our family, a family that is ashamed the parents who asked for you to be created then rejected you.
And today, we vow to sign international regulations for all children created in far-off lands so that they will know their DNA donors. We vow the surrogate women who carry the young of the future will be properly cared for, paid, treated, and that their human rights will be honoured.
And to those still searching for the secrets of who you are, I hope you can be happy you are one of us. You are more than your genetic code. You are Australians."
August 24, 2040.
"I, Tawar Zagar, as the 50th Prime Minister of Australia and New Zealand, stand before you to express shame, regret, sorrow and hope.
As the child of asylum seekers, I was a lucky one. I was on the Tampa, the boat that on this date 39 years ago triggered a change in attitude and policy toward refugees. I, a Hazari male then 10 years old was alone, traumatised and scared, but thankful I had escaped certain death. I lived on Nauru interned with others. Some years later I watched and heard of other refugees like me being sent to another country where their human right were violated. We didn't hear much of what happened but word leaked out, and the word was shameful.
As Prime Minister, I say sorry to those asylum seekers sent offshore. I say sorry for the incarceration and cruelty. I say sorry for the rape and neglect that happened in the land where we had placed you. I am sorry Australia turned away when you sewed your lips together, refused to eat and were beaten. We washed our hands of your pain. I say sorry for the policies of both parties of old that sought to assuage fears in the Australian community that your safety was compromised so other Australians could feel safe from a fear that was fueled by a desire for votes.
I say sorry for your trauma and the pain that still stands today.
I pay my respect to, and I thank, the brave doctors and nurses and activists who spoke out to expose the mistreatment carried out in places such as Manus Island. I commend the ordinary Australians who stood up and spoke out and those who offered welcome, shelter and care to refugees. I thank the school teachers, community groups and refugee advocates who fought for the rights of the powerless people who fled pain and horror.
We apologise for the post traumatic stress disorder many still carry within them and for hobbling your attempts to be good Australians.
Let the new Australia treat all with fairness, consideration and humanity."
June 5, 2065.
I, Ziggy Li-Zwai, the Prime Minister of Australasia, rise in this parliament to say sorry. I apologise to the people of this land of searing heat, deadly droughts, flooding rains, blasting bush fires and and diminishing resources. A land whose people had their future sold by past leaders.
I say sorry that this land of hot sun and ferocious winds dragged its feet on alternative energy and actively discouraged its development.
I say sorry that we campaigned against the future.
I say sorry that ideology and vested interests meant our nation fell behind as the world became a clean energy economy.
I say sorry for the those who buried their heads and refused to accept the clear facts about climate change. They denied science and evidence due to their own fear, stupidity and vested interests. I apologise for the media who waged war against the scientists who urged Australia and the world to act.
I say sorry that coal mining and CSG production polluted the ground water and aquifers and ended generations of farming. I say sorry for the oil spills on the Great Barrier Reef and the coral deaths caused by dredging and bleaching of our warmer planet. My parents once swam amongst the coral when it had colour; they said it was an underwater paradise.
When I was a baby growing up in China, breathing in the toxic particle dust in the air, I didn't know it was stunting my growth, damaging my lungs and turning my then country toxic. As an Australian, I say sorry for the pollution we exported to other lands when we could have pursued a cleaner world. Coal was an important part of our economy. It gave us great wealth. But I am sorry we didn't leave more in the ground and focus on a cleaner future.
I say sorry for all leaders of the past for the cyclones, the floods, the fires, the drought and the damage to your homes and farmland. I say sorry for the mass extinctions. The leaders of old could not imagine our future. Their people were scared. They did not feel their land mattered to the world so they resisted and got left behind. It took years to right this wrong and our country missed the new clean economy. We are still paying the price.
As we work to replace the bridges, the farmland lost, to rebuild on higher land and to move populations that cannot survive without water, let us vow to look forward - not back.
We are now fixing the wrongs of the past and living in a cleaner, better, brighter world. Let us work to give it a future that will make sorry a word of history and thank you a word of the future."
Yes this is make believe. And I hope I'm not right. But let's not wait to say sorry, let's get our act together for the future we want to imagine.
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Beyond 2000 made some outrageous claims about the future. How many did they get right?
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