They’re Sorry

OK, I don’t get it. The issue of an apology being offered by the Federal Government of the Commonwealth of Australia to Indigenous Australians is in the news again and all I seem to see are people arguing either that we do have a personal responsibility to the past or that we don’t.

You have missed the point.

An apology by the Federal Government is not morally required because of any personal obligation. Personal obligations do not come into this at all. An apology is required because it was the Federal Government of the Commonwealth of Australia that perpetrated these actions. That the Government was in the hands of different people is beside the point. The Federal Government is a legal entity that has existed since its inception in 1901. Actions it committed in the past are as much its responsibility as actions it commits today. Such is the nature of a government.

Is a company any less responsible for its actions merely because the CEO has changed? No. The issue of whether the company is responsible is entirely independent of any particular person. So it is with governments (and indeed any corporate entity).

So we’re sorry. And by ‘we’ I mean ‘they’. Now can we just get this over and done with so we can all move on with our lives?