Kevin Rudd says the time has come to look at compensation for members of the Stolen Generations.
In an interview with NITV's Awaken, the former prime minister said he considered compensation at the time of his 2008 apology speech but believed it could have become the "exclusive national focus" when he was working on reconciliation. However he said he never ruled it out altogether.
Mr Rudd said he was conscious members of the Stolen Generations were getting older and now was the time to act.
"If we're now beginning to talk about the possibility of compensation for the individual victims of sexual abuse through the current Royal Commission in Australia…If we're doing that, I think the time has come to look afresh at how we compensate the members of the Stolen Generation as well," he said.
"I feel ethically uncomfortable now that we have secured the enduring nature of the apology to leave this question [of compensation] unaddressed.
"Many people will say to me 'Well that's fine and dandy Kevin – you’re no longer prime minister and it's no longer apology day'."
It is just over seven years since Mr Rudd delivered the speech in Federal Parliament on February 13, 2008.
Reflecting on his preparation for the speech, Mr Rudd said he had struggled to find the words to reach Indigenous Australians.
"I feel ethically uncomfortable now that we have secured the enduring nature of the apology to leave this question unaddressed."
"I had an idea of what an apology meant to me but I had no idea, really, what it would mean to Indigenous Australia," he said.
He said the penny dropped when he met with Indigenous woman Lorna "Nanna Nungala" Fejo, who welcomed him into her Canberra home and told him her story.
"It’s only at that point that, if you have any humanity about you, that you can begin to identify with what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this," Mr Rudd said.
He said his goal with the apology had been to both articulate the harrowing experiences of Indigenous people taken from their families and to tackle any arguments from the white constituency against taking responsibility for actions of the past.
"There's too much of a problem in the white historiography of reconciliation and the history of Aboriginal Australia that regards it with a clinical detachment," he said.
"I had an idea of what an apology meant to me but I had no idea, really, what it would mean to Indigenous Australia."
"If we are prepared in this country to accept the best of our history, as part of the legacy that we celebrate – Anzac and that sort of stuff - then, hang on, what about the shocking ones?"
Mr Rudd said he was actively discouraged from delivering the address from members of the caucus and sensed he had a "job of advocacy."
He said he had "no idea" who would watch the speech and what reaction it would get.
"The miracle of the apology was that the Indigenous leadership of the day, and still today, accepted the apology," he said.
'Profoundly disappointing' Closing the Gap report
Prime Minister Tony Abbott last week tabled in Parliament the annual Closing the Gap statement, which assesses progress on improving all aspects of Indigenous life from health to education.
"Two centuries of occasional partial success and frequently dashed hopes has taught us that neither side of politics can achieve meaningful progress without working with the other," Mr Abbott said.
"So none of us should seek to score a point or defend a legacy here.
"Just to reach out across the aisle, because that is the only hope of lasting success."
Mr Abbott said it was important on days such as this that "we should acknowledge where we have failed".
Mr Abbott said the past year had been about developing practical reforms to address Indigenous disadvantage.
In the interview with Awaken, Kevin Rudd shared his views on the Closing the Gap report.
"Ultimately I think we need to have sufficient respect for Indigenous Australians to make their own choices about their own local communities," he said.
"Secondly, because there is such an accumulated history of Indigenous disadvantage, I genuinely question the wisdom of withdrawing half a billion dollars from outlays for Indigenous Australians and to leave so many Indigenous organisations utterly stranded in terms of where their future funding comes from.”
- With AAP
