Britain has been urged by prominent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson to endorse an apology delivered by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd because English intellectuals had inspired the policy of seizing the children.
But the British Government is refusing to follow Mr Rudd’s lead in saying sorry to the stolen generations.
“The apology offered in the Australian Parliament is a matter for the Australian people and addresses laws and policies of successive Australian parliaments and governments,” a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
Mr Robertson has argued Britain bore a “heavy historic responsibility” for the stolen generations and should apologise.
Where do they think white Australia came from? Who were they before they were ‘Australians’, and under which government did it all begin?