MILLIONS of Australians will never support a formal apology to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders because they do not think there is anything to apologise for, Prime Minister John Howard has said.
Mr Howard has committed a re-elected Coalition government to a referendum to recognise indigenous people in a preamble to the Constitution in pursuit of a new Aboriginal reconciliation based on "equity rather than apologies".
He has said a vote would show the "watershed change" on national attitudes to Australia's indigenous population since his Government's intervention in isolated communities. But he has again ruled out saying sorry.
"I have always supported reconciliation but not of the apologetic, shame-laden, guilt-ridden type," he said on Southern Cross radio.
"There are millions of Australians who will never entertain an apology because they don't believe there is anything to apologise for. They are sorry for past mistreatment but that is different from assuming responsibility for it."
But in his speech last night in which he outlined his proposal, he appealed to Australians to recognise that "while ever our indigenous citizens are left out or marginalised or feel their identity is challenged, we are all diminished".
"We are not a federation of tribes. We are one great tribe; one Australia."
Indigenous leaders have welcomed Mr Howard's new stance on the reconciliation issue, but some have questioned its timing with a federal election just around the corner and have said an apology will always remain "unfinished business".
Labor Leader Kevin Rudd has offered "bipartisan leadership" on the issue.
Turnaround
Mr Howard outlined his plan in a speech last night, overturning more than a decade of opposition to reconciliation involving symbolism, reviving the idea of a constitutional recognition of the achievements and the place of indigenous people in Australia.
"I believe we must find room in our national life to formally recognise the special status of Aboriginal (people) and Torres Strait Islanders as the first peoples of our nation," he said last night.
While refusing to accept any separate treaty, Mr Howard vowed to address a great "challenge and a sorrow".
Mr Howard confessed that reconciliation had been a "struggle" for him but denied he'd undergone a Damascene conversion.
He also accepted the blame for the "dwindling of relationships" between him and Aboriginal leaders, and his failure to fulfil the 1998 election-night promise of reconciliation by 2001.
He said the crisis of indigenous "social and cultural disintegration requires a stronger affirmation of indigenous identity and culture as a source of dignity, self-esteem and pride".
"If re-elected, I will put to the Australian people within 18 months a referendum to formally recognise indigenous Australians in our Constitution - their history as the first inhabitants of our country, their unique heritage of culture and languages, and their special (though not separate) place within a reconciled, indivisible nation.
"My goal is to see a new statement of reconciliation incorporated into the preamble of the Australian Constitution."
The proposal was welcomed by Aboriginal activists, who had been briefed by indigenous leader Noel Pearson before Mr Howard's speech, but many attacked the timing of the announcement as cynical.
"Another bloody election promise," former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chairwoman Lowitja O'Donoghue said.
"It's not before time, it's what we've fought for, but who believes him? I don't."
Former Labor president and Aboriginal activist Warren Mundine said the announcement was "a bit surprising".
"He has been Prime Minister for 11 years now and he is doing this just days before calling an election. He should go the extra step and say sorry," he said.
Rudd support
Kevin Rudd last night offered bipartisan support for the proposal but said he wanted to see the detail. "Constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians has been long-held federal Labor policy ... A referendum will succeed if it has strong public support, and bipartisan leadership, and in the spirit of the 1967 referendum, federal Labor offers this support."
Mr Howard admitted reconciliation was an area "I have struggled with during the entire time that I have been Prime Minister".
He said he felt uncomfortable with the idea of guilt and shame for non-indigenous Australians based "on a repudiation of the Australia I grew up in" and a rights agenda that led to welfare dependency and a sense of separateness.
"I sense in the community a rare and unexpected convergence of opinion on this issue between the more conservative approach, which I clearly identify with, and those who traditionally have favoured more of a group rights approach.
"It is a moment in time which should be seized, lest it be lost.
"Now, for the first time in a long time, we can see the outline of a new settlement for indigenous policy in Australia. It stands at a point of intersection between rights and responsibilities; between the symbolic and the practical."
"For my generation - Australians who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s - it has been ever-present; a subject of deep sorrow and of great hope. The challenge, and unfinished business, of our time. It is the place of indigenous people in the profound, compelling and unfolding story of Australia.
"This new reconciliation I'm talking about starts from the premise that individual rights and national sovereignty prevail over group rights," he said.
"At its core is the need for Aboriginal Australia to join the mainstream economy as the foundation of economic and social progress."
