But we must move on. We must acknowledge past wrongs, guarantee against their repetition and express genuine sorrow both for these acts and the consequences of such acts. I have moved in these terms in the parliament every year since and including the tabling of the Bringing them Home Report in 1997. We cannot write or interpret our history in the Courts. No finding of a contemporary Court can either vindicate, or of itself punish legislators and administrators of the past.
Litigation is a poor interpreter of history and an imprecise instrument of public policy.
History deals with general patterns, big pictures, causes and consequences. Litigation moves slowly along, case by case, constrained by rules of evidence that restrict admissibility, that focus on the particular facts relevant to the specific action being pleaded and place all onus of proof on the plaintiff. Rules of evidence and other court rules have an honourable intent and honourable purpose. When the roles are reversed, and the State as Goliath enjoys all the protections really intended for David, courts work not nearly as well as they should. Governments are aware of this, and commit themselves to a Code of Practice that compels them to act in an exemplary manner.