(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The majority of people in Australia agree with their government’s decision to apologize to Aboriginal communities for what is known as the Stolen Generation, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 69 per cent of respondents support the formal apology.

However, 64 per cent of respondents would not support a motion to financially compensate the victims of the Stolen Generation.

For over 60 years and into the 1970s, the Australian government—and Catholic Church missions—forcibly removed Australia’s Aboriginal children from their families and placed them in institutions or with foster families.

In 1995, a national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was established to look into the problems caused by the policy. A report released by the commission two years later concluded that the removal of children was a "violation of basic human rights" that amounted to genocide, because it sought to eliminate an ethnic group. The government began to work on several policies for the return of the "lost" children, as well as the reconciliation between Australians of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal origin.

In November 2001, the Vatican issued a formal apology for the Church’s role in the Stolen Generation.

On Feb. 13, Australian prime minister and leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Kevin Rudd became the first head of government to formally apologize to Australia’s Aboriginal population, saying, "For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry."

The government has ruled out any type of financial compensation for the victims of the Stolen Generation. On Feb. 22, Stephen Knight, a professor at Cardiff University, reflected upon the issue, saying, "There are some Aboriginal communities who have retained land rights and received substantial rewards for that. The whole question of compensation is difficult and in terms of many of the lands they possessed—some would have been intrinsically worthless while others might have uranium and copper on them. (...) But I think it [compensation] is a logical next step and I think we should be ready for it."

Polling Data

Thinking about the formal apology made in Parliament last Wednesday to the Indigenous community, especially to members of the "Stolen Generations"... Do you support or not support this apology being made?

Would you support or not support the federal government providing financial compensation to members of the "Stolen Generations"?

Source: Newspoll / The Australian
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,140 Australian voters, conducted from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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