CANBERRA, Feb 12: Australia’s new prime minister aims to launch a fresh era in his country’s often-fraught race relations on Wednesday with an apology for the “indignity and degradation” suffered by Aborigines.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signalled a shift in mood in Canberra on Tuesday when he invited Aboriginal elders to stage a welcome ceremony for his centre-left government, the first such event in the parliament’s history.

He followed up by releasing the much-anticipated text of the formal apology to Aborigines he will deliver to parliament, going much further than the highly qualified statement initially expected.

The apology is being viewed as a watershed in Australia, with major television networks airing it live and huge screens being erected in major cities to allow crowds to watch as it happens.

Mr Rudd’s text refers to the “past mistreatment” of all Aborigines, not just the “stolen generations” of children forcibly removed from their families, who provided the initial impetus for the apology.

“We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on our fellow Australians,” Mr Rudd will say in parliament, according to the text.

He also singles out the ‘stolen generations’, mostly mixed-race children, who were taken from their families up until the 1970s in a bid to assimilate them into white society.

“For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry,” he will say.

“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

“For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

Labour leader Rudd’s use of the word ‘sorry’ carries a special resonance for Aborigines after the prime minister’s conservative predecessor John Howard steadfastly refused to utter it during his 11 years in power.

Mr Rudd’s first parliamentary session since his landslide win over Mr Howard last November began with Matilda House-Williams, an elder of Canberra’s Ngambri tribe, welcoming lawmakers to her clan’s ancestral lands.

Australia’s Aboriginal and colonial history were both on display as politicians were welcomed by Ms House-Williams barefoot and clad in a possum-fur cape, then formally sworn-in by the governor-general.

“Today we begin with one small step to set right the wrongs of the past,” Mr Rudd said at the ceremony.—AFP