WE'VE SAID SORRY - NOW LET'S DO SOMETHING!

(This article has been reprinted from a recent column of the AFR - Peter Ruehl)

It hasn't taken very long for the fallout from the "Sorry" day show to happen, which is not surprising as the whole thing had a feel-good vibe that left you wondering what you were feeling so good about. There's something a little creepy about that many people in a self-congratulatory mode when nothing substantial has actually happened.

There's no doubt it had to be said, if for no other reason than Aborigines wanted to hear it. In the past not a lot of people have told them they're sorry about anything and the ones who did sometimes caused as much harm as good. So a formal apology, no matter how you want to mean it or how indigenous Australians want to take it, isn't just a cool idea. It was a necessity. But it has to go beyond that. If I say I'm sorry I wrecked your car, you expect a little more than the loan of a skateboard.

Enter that party-pooper Brendan Nelson, who reminded everybody not only of what they had to be sorry for in the past, but also in the present and foreseeable future. It's not as though Kevin Rudd's announcement solved any problems. A lot of hand wringing about what nasty people Australians used to be (or just plain dumb) and how enlightened we all are now doesn't mean squat. Nelson pointed out that on a day when the true believers were getting all misty-eyed at Parliament House, many Aborigines are living in squalor and fear of sexual abuse. If he was wrong to say that, then it was wrong to say sorry in the first place.

Because you bet we have a lot to be sorry for. We're the ones who are perpetuating this continuing horror show by refusing to take the obvious step of treating Aborigines the way you'd treat any other Australian, let alone a human being. When somebody consistently abuses a kid, we separate the kid from the abuser. And a judge makes sure the abuser gets to wear an orange jumpsuit.

When somebody's half in the bag every waking hour of every day and causing trouble, we make them dry out. And we don't cordon off an entire section of the community just because some of its (occasionally self-appointed) leaders are making up the real estate rules as they go.

Doing nothing on grounds that everything else that's been tried was wrong seems to have been the most recent policy. Sort of like swearing off all music after you've been to an Avril Lavigne concert. You can see how well that's worked.

Let them live off the land, their land, in the noble-savage routine. If you lived in a dump in a dry, dusty place where grass wouldn't grow, you'd want a few beers every day too. This is slum living, rural style, and it's about as sacred as East LA for most people stuck there.

Nelson, who normally seems like the product of a taxidermist, was fairly eloquent in a simple way but went against the grain of the rent-a-crowd he spoke to. On a television interview in the face of several persistent questions about whether he took the wrong tack, Nelson said he had chosen his words carefully and it was important to "confront Australians on a day when more than the usual number of us thankfully were focused on Aboriginal issues". In other words, it was time to walk that walk.

Children in many cases are going to have to be removed from the ratty conditions they're in. Judges are going to have to stop being scammed by "traditional" excuses for dirtbag behaviour. Aborigines, in general, have to stop being treated as though they're from another planet.

A word on behalf of the Aussies in the past who really tried to do it right. I recently received a letter from a woman in Coolum Beach, Queensland, who enclosed an article from a 1968 edition of Rural Youth magazine. The story, "All-Aboriginal Narwan Club Holds Festival", told how a ball was held, (a record number of 700 people attended, about 650 of whom were Aborigines"), football matches and a boxing tournament held and the usual barbeque organised.

It was a fund raising event but because quite a few people didn't get around to paying for their tickets, not much was raised. The article ends: "All will hope ….. the present effort will lead to a greater sense of achievement and fulfilment in every way."

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