ABSTRACT
The government refused to apologise on behalf of the Australian people (a refusal consistent with earlier comments about ‘black armband history’ by the Prime Minister), and refused to consider other key aspects of the recommendations of the report, notably compensation. Criticism of the report was made, obliquely, by the government, and more directly by newspaper correspondents, some columnists and Dr Ron Brunton of the Institute of Public Affairs. Such criticism has helped to form public opinion on the Stolen Generations and on the actions the government should take in response to the whole sorry business. In this chapter, the author considers the major points made by the critics of the report. Nevertheless there was much agitation in the 1920s, possibly because governments at this time were much more explicit about their intentions towards the Aboriginal people even in their public documents. Certainly, public Aboriginal opposition to the child removal policy was loudest at that time.
