Aborigines put compo cases ‘on hold’ Rudd’s a ‘fund guy’

Alex de Vos
Geelong region Aborigines have put on hold plans to sue government after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology left the door open for a compensation fund, according to Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative.
Cooperative chairperson Lyn McInnes said the organisation had “no doubt” a compensation fund would follow the apology to indigenous Australians on Wednesday.
Earlier this month the Independent revealed that 35 Geelong region Aborigines were ready to take court action after the apology for their forced removal and adoption with white families.
But Ms McInnes said they now “might not have to do it that way”.
“I believe there will be a whole new way of doing business,” she said.
“They (Federal Government) will establish a compensation fund.”
“If you just listen to his speech, he left it open.
“I don’t think it will come to that (suing the Federal Government) now.”
Ms McInnes said the apology was a “step forward” in acknowledging past wrongs.
“Now the healing can start,” she said.
“Mr Rudd is going to make things better for us. We’re not going to be treated like second-class citizens any more.”
Mr Rudd delivered the apology in parliament’s House of Representatives in Canberra on Wednesday morning.
He said the time had “now come for the nation to turn a new page”.
Before his speech Mr Rudd formally moved that the House of Representatives apologise to Australia’s indigenous peoples.
“We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history,” read the apology.
Mr Rudd said the apology was meant in the “true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia”.