As seen on Tim Blair’s blog. The Noel Pearson he quotes as saying, “One of my misgivings about the apology has been my belief that nothing good will come from viewing ourselves, and making our case on the basis of our status, as victims,” is an Aboriginal lawyer and land rights activist from the Cape York peninsula in northern Queensland. Here’s Pearson’s full article in the Australian on the apology (video of Rudd delivering it here) – you could call it a mixed review – in which he compares the positions of John Howard and Kevin Rudd: “Which is more sincere: to say ‘we will not apologise to the Stolen Generations and we won’t pay compensation’ or ‘we will apologise but we won’t pay compensation’?” It’s a fascinating read from this side of the Tasman.

The righties claim there never was any stolen generation; the lefties think that a form of words will do instead of cash. As in, “Look, we’re a bit sorry, mate, but not that sorry.” As Nino Culotta said, they’re a weird mob.