Andrew Bolt: Jacinta Allan should tell us which ‘stolen’ children she apologised to

Why did Allan apologise to the “stolen generation” in secret? Do we at last have 10 kids truly stolen just for being Aboriginal, or do we have a dangerously gullible Premier falsely smearing our “shameful” past?

Victoria’s Premier has a secret she really should share with all Australians. Or she’s a dupe who can’t be trusted to run our busted state.

Last Thursday Jacinta Allan made an extraordinary apology to the “stolen generations” – to children she claimed “were forcibly removed from their families.”

It was extraordinary for two reasons.

First, it was held in secret, at a private gathering with no media invited.

Why did Jacinta Allan apologise to the “stolen generation” in private? Picture: Supplied

That already smells off given, Allan was not offering a personal apology but one supposedly on behalf of all Victorians.

Why would the Premier sneak off to do that away from the media, announcing it only later in a brief Instagram post?

Allan later implied it was at the request of “stolen” children, telling reporters that given our “shameful past” they “absolutely deserve the respect, to be able to determine the safe, appropriate way that that apology is delivered to them”.

But Allan’s apology affects all voters, of whatever race, since it implies a collective view with possibly collective obligations. Apologising privately to who-knows-who is what’s not “safe” in a democracy.

That brings me to a more serious problem with her apology, which might also help to explain that secrecy.

Who were the “stolen” children Allan apologised to?

Who were the “stolen” children Allan apologised to? Picture: Supplied

Those names could be crucial because two decades ago I challenged “stolen generations” activists to name even just 10 of the 100,000 children the Human Rights Commission claimed were stolen from their families by racist officials just because they were Aboriginal.

None succeeded, naming instead neglected or abandoned children, including young girls who’d been found pregnant, or children sent away by their parents to get a schooling.

And here’s the weirdest thing about Allan, a Victorian Premier, apologising to the “stolen generation”.

Two decades ago another Victorian Labor Premier, Steve Bracks, had a Stolen Generations Taskforce, chaired by Aboriginal spokesman Jim Berg, looking for “stolen” children.

It searched all Victoria but only 16 “stolen” children came forward, but the only ones its report mentioned hadn’t been “stolen” but adopted out by their single mothers, or sent to boarding schools.

The report admitted Victoria in fact had had “no formal policy for removing children” from Aboriginal parents. Yet Victoria had 36 organisations supposedly helping “stolen” children.

So who did Allan apologise to last Thursday? Do we at last have 10 children truly stolen just for being Aboriginal, or do we have a dangerously gullible Premier falsely smearing our “shameful” past?

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Jacinta Allan should tell us which ‘stolen’ children she apologised to