Advocates for Stolen Generations survivors have questioned Peter Dutton's mea culpa for boycotting the 2008 Apology, 15 years after he walked out of the chamber during Kevin Rudd's delivery.
The Leader of the Opposition was the only member of the shadow front bench to do so. Following last year's May election, Mr Dutton said it had been the wrong thing to do.
Meagan Gerrard and Alex McWhirter, representatives for Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation, asked why Mr Dutton had taken so long to recognise it as such.
"As a leader of this country, why has it taken 15 years for [him] to recognise [his] mistake? Why [hasn't he] been listening?"
As the parliament marked the sombre occasion, Mr Dutton said he had "failed to grasp" the "symbolic significance" of the Apology at the time.
"It was right of Prime Minister Rudd to make the Apology in 2008," he said.
"It is right that we recognise the anniversary today, it's right that the government continues its efforts and in whatever way possible. We support that in a bipartisan effort."
Mss. Gerrard and McWhirter took exception to Mr Dutton's choice of language, and highlighted the worsening rates of First Nations children in out-of-home care.
"We believe that the significance of the Apology should never have been understood as simply 'symbolic'.
"We echo what our Elders and our community have been speaking for decades: Sorry means you don’t do it again. Sorry demands action."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd greets Stolen Generations representative in 2008, after delivering the Apology. Source: AAP / AAP POOL
She was in the chamber for Monday's marking of the anniversary, supporting survivors who had chosen to attend, and witnessed Dutton's apology.
"I had a look around at the faces of the survivor delegations from across the country, and I saw some surprised," she said.
"There were comments about it being overdue... two people said to me they had accepted it was never coming."
Ms Cornforth said it was a welcome change to have bipartisan support behind the idea of healing the traumas of the Stolen Generations.
"When I started [at] Healing Foundation... one of the first things to come up was 'How are you going to convince both sides of government that we've got unmet healing needs, when some still choose to deny the truth?'"
However, Ms Cornforth questioned parliament's ongoing will to dealing with those needs, given the most recent Closing the Gap commitments.
"[That] implementation plan doesn't directly deal with those unmet needs. We know there's more actions yet to be designed for delivery."
'We have never been approached'
as a training institution for Aboriginal girls who were forcibly removed from their families.
The current Coota Girls was founded in 2013 by survivors of the facility, and its board of directors is similarly populated by survivors and their descendants.
As politicians on Monday again expressed their support for the apology and regret for the horrors behind it, the organisation called out both sides of government for failing to engage with them.
"In our 10 years of operations as a Survivor-led Aboriginal Corporation, we have never been approached by Government leaders seeking to come to our spaces, listen to our stories and hear our solutions," said Mss. McWhirter and Gerrard.
"Instead, our Survivors have constantly been called upon to take a seat at the Government’s table, and they are tired of sharing their pain without seeing any meaningful action."
Police experiences explained walkout: Dutton
The Opposition Leader relayed experiences he had in the Queensland Police Force that had informed his judgement at the time.
He relayed instances of responding to violent incidents involving First Nations people.
He believed an apology should only have been made "at a time where we had addressed and curbed that violence and incidences."
It isn't the first time Mr Dutton has apologised for his absence. In May of 2022, when elected to lead the Liberal Party, he told reporters he had "made a mistake in relation to the apology".
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney spoke to Parliament after Mr Dutton, and acknowledged his apology.
"For some, the apology was something to reject. And of course, we all learn and we all grow," she said.
"I thank the leader of the opposition for his apology today. It is a good thing we grow and we learn."
Speaking to the Healing Foundation on Sunday, Ms Burney warned the opposition leader to not make the same mistake when it comes to the Voice to Parliament.
"When a generous and gracious hand is outstretched - in partnership - it should be grasped. To do anything else, would be to repeat the mistakes of the past."
