The Australian government has apologized to the aborigines of Australia for the forced removal of aboriginal children from their families in past times, a practice known as the "stolen generation". In many workplaces around Australia, people stopped work to watch a live telecast of the apology by the newly elected (Labor Party) Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. The telecast showed a crowd of some thousands of people, including many aborigines, who had traveled from all over Australia, standing in front of the Parliament building when the speeches by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition (Dr Brendan Nelson) were made, and watching on large screens set up for their use. Although the speech was probably a bit corny - how could it not be, given the enormity of the abuse perpetrated on innocent aborigines over a long time - every aboriginal spokesperson congratulated the government for doing the right thing. The previous Prime Minister, John Howard, who had refused to make such an apology himself, declined to attend the occasion. The four previous PM's before him did do so, the oldest of whom, E. G. Whitlam < en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough_Whitlam > , a WW2 veteran who was elected in 1972. Mr Whitlam famously returned an area of the Australian desert to the local aboriginal tribe in a ceremony in which he symbolically poured a handful of red sand into the hands of one of the elders of the tribe, Vincent Lingiari < see picture here: www.theage.com.au/articles/...33075.html >. For the text of the apology and related news stories from News.com.au, visit this site: < www.news.com.au/story/0,23...0-2,00.html >.