Off the wire
• Aussie scientists play important role in discovery of Einstein's gravitational waves  • Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, Feb. 12  • Feature: Spring Festival celebrations in Laos spread cheer, forge amity  • Tokyo stocks tumble from bell on yen's rise, global economic outlook woes  • "It was a miracle," says injured Argentinian player after bus accident  • Former Brazil midfielder Ze Roberto to retire at end of year  • Messi expresses solidarity with injured players in bus accident  • Urgent: Agreement on ceasefire, humanitarian aid reached in Syria support group talks  • Canadian PM meets with UN chief, stressing Canada's recommitment to UN  • Economic challenges highlighted in Zuma's State of Nation Address  
You are here: 　 Home

Former PM calls on Australians to name and shame racism

Xinhua, February 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

A former Australian prime minister says the nation needs to name and shame racism as, like cancer, it's eating away at the fabric of society.

In 2008, before Australia's national parliament, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to Australia's indigenous person for the "indignities" they suffered since the earliest days of European settlement, including the removal of children from homes to be assimilated into western type society known as the Stolen Generation.

It was intended the apology would bring Australia together in solidarity for justice and national reconciliation.

Delivering a speech to the New South Wales state parliament on Friday to mark the 8th anniversary of his apology to Australia's indigenous Stolen Generation, Rudd said he was perhaps naive to think indignities and racism have ceased and were not at work in Australia five years ago.

"Perhaps I was just wishing that the better angels of our nature had begun to prevail in a newly reconciled Australia," Rudd told a national apology breakfast in Sydney on Friday.

"Or perhaps I was just plain wrong."

Rudd said racism does not represent the mainstream of Australian society, but it would be wrong to conclude there is not a problem of racism against Australia's indigenous peoples, a problem that is "more confronting than we white folks are ready for," using many people's justification for booing the Aboriginal Australian Football League (AFL) sports star Adam Goodes as an example.

"I'm not exactly a connoisseur of the finer points of the game," Rudd said.

"But I think the claim that this was to do with Adam Goodes as a sportsman and not to do with his Aboriginal identity, I think that claim, is 100 percent bullshit," he said.

"(Racism) is like a cancer that eats away at the fabric of our society - the fabric that binds us together as the wider Australian family," Rudd said, adding even if expressed by a small minority, racist words "still carry great weight, because they are powered by the force of history."

"The next time any of us see or hear racist behaviour, don't be silent. Name it. Shame it. For racism in any form has no place in the Australia of the 21st century." Endit