Australia says 'sorry'
The opening of Australia's 42nd Parliament had something that has never happened before in more than a century of this federation. The formal start of the Parliament had a special, ceremonial place for representatives of the Aboriginal people who have walked this land for more than 50,000 years. The opening day of the Australian parliament previously drew all its traditions from Britain - the Queen's representative, the Governor-General comes to deliver the government's program on the first sitting day.

This time, though, there was another sort of opening - the low hum of the Aboriginal didgeridoo preceded the vice-regal pomp. It happened in the very centre of the Parliament, in the marble hall beneath the glass ceiling that looks up to the giant flagpole soaring over the building. Here the members of the new Parliament were greeted by Aboriginal dancers and an Aboriginal elder declared, "Welcome to the land of our ancestors". Both sides of Australian politics declared that an Aboriginal welcoming ceremony will become a permanent feature of all future openings of the Parliament - henceforth the Westminster tradition will carry the tang of the gum leaves of the Australian bush and know the rhythm of bare feet pounding on red earth.

As important as that moment was, and will continue to be, it was quickly washed away the following day when the Australian Parliament became an extraordinary stage, swept by emotion, important words, and some tears. The first action of the 42nd Parliament was to say sorry to Aborigines. In the words of the Prime Minister's motion, to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past - to apologise for the laws and policies of earlier governments that inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss.

The chamber was packed - Aboriginal elders and political elders - four ex-Australian Prime Ministers on the floor. There was only one living ex Prime Minister not present. John Howard, the leader who lost government and his own seat in Parliament at last November's election, was at home in Sydney, not in Canberra on the floor of the House of Representatives, a place he dominated for the last 11-and-a-half years.

It was John Howard who'd stored up the emotion that flooded through Canberra on Wednesday because he'd refused to offer an apology to Aborigines, especially denying the need to say sorry for the policy of taking Aboriginal children from their families - what's become known as the stolen generations.

By making the apology the centrepiece of the first week of the new Parliament, the Rudd Government said it was dealing with a blemished chapter in Australia's history. It was also erasing one policy legacy from the Howard Government. That legacy certainly weighed down Mr Howard's successor as leader of the Liberal Party, Dr Brendan Nelson, who embraced the notion of saying sorry while trying not not to disown the Howard Government in which he was a Minister.

Both Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson said sorry for the past but also said sorry for the present. An Aboriginal child born in Australia today is four times more likely to die than an other Australian baby. On average, an Aboriginal man will live 17 years less than the Australian average. Dr Nelson called these realities disgraceful and inexcusable. Indeed they are. Having said sorry, both sides of Australian politics must now - in the words of the Parliamentary motion - find new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

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