Fed: Reconciliation still possible Tim Costello

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2000
Fed: Reconciliation still possible Tim Costello

CANBERRA, April 23 AAP - Reconciliation was still possible in Australia, Baptist minister
Tim Costello said today.

Reverend Costello, brother of federal Treasurer Peter Costello, said an apology to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for past wrongs would allow the entire country
to move on.

The reverend has previously criticised Prime Minister John Howard as having "a lack
of emotional resonance" for refusing to formally apologise to the stolen generation of
Aboriginal children taken from their families by white authorities.

"I was referring that to the context of reconciliation and saying the S-word, an apology,"

Mr Costello told the Nine Network.

"The lack of emotional resonance - I was referring to the Prime Minister's intractable
position on that issue."

The reconciliation process, which was originally hoped to be completed by the centenary
of federation next January, has been stalled this year by the Prime Minister walking away
from the January 1 deadline, the federal government's refusal to overturn mandatory sentencing
laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia and its denial that a stolen generation
existed, on the grounds that only 10 per cent of children were taken.

Mr Costello said it was possible for Australia as a nation to progress reconciliation.

"I think the whole stolen generations debate is a mirror held up to our face, where
we believe we are the fairest most egalitarian nation on earth, with concern for the battlers,"

he said.

"And our history actually says well, when it came to indigenous people, particularly
those of mixed blood, we weren't like that at all.

"I think if we could actually reconcile that image of ourselves and say yes, that is
part of our history, yes, we apologise to those who have been damaged, we can actually
move on from that."

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation is due to present its final statement of
reconciliation to Mr Howard next month.

AAP mfh/it

KEYWORD: RECONCILE COSTELLO

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