In fact, as horrendous as the effects have been, the overriding impression I take from this inquiry is not the damage, but the strength. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is now on the table. The defence of ignorance is no longer available. These children were removed as a matter of national policy. The policy of our nation.
Government is an ongoing institution.
It inherits the achievements, the responsibilities and the mistakes of its predecessors. The obligation to pay a pension toWWII veterans did not dissolve with the government in power at the end of the war. Nor do we think that the germany of today can absolve itself of what was done by the Germans fifty years ago. Governments take up that inheritance all over the world, all the time. Just last week the President of the United States apologised to the black men who were victims of government run scientific experiments sixty years ago.