John Howard laments handling of 1997 reconciliation but still not sorry

JOHN Howard last night lamented his handling of the landmark 1997 reconciliation address that sparked an indigenous revolt.

JOHN Howard last night ­lamented his handling of the landmark 1997 reconciliation ­address that sparked an indigenous revolt and expressed embarrassment over the lack of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq after the 2003 ­invasion by the allied forces.

In 1997, the then Liberal prime minister expressed deep personal sorrow over the Stolen Generations but stopped short in that speech of apologising on ­behalf of the nation.

Instead, the speech marked a low in indigenous relations, a point conceded last night by Mr Howard during an interview with The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen in Howard Unmasked on the Seven Network.

“The first part of the speech was fine and I actually said some things that encouraged the people that turned their backs on me to turn around and sit down ­because they thought what I was saying was OK,’’ he said.

“But then I responded to some interjections close to the stage and I made the mistake of raising my voice and it was terrible. I felt it was pretty ordinary at the time and then when I saw the footage I thought it was worse than pretty ordinary.’’

During the speech, Mr Howard raised his voice as hostility grew in the crowd during the ­Aboriginal Reconciliation Convention, designed to chart the reconciliation process towards the centenary of Federation.

However, Mr Howard last night maintained his view that he did not believe the current generation of Australians should apologise for things that ­occurred at the hand of others.

He also maintained that genocide had not occurred and denied that he had not offered his own form of apology.

“Well I did apologise in a sense. I delivered a statement of regret to the parliament, but it’s very easy to apologise for other people’s mistakes.’’

At the conference, Mr Howard defended his 10-point response to the Wik decision, which followed a 1996 High Court decision relating to a claim of native title on pastoral leases.

In last night’s interview, Mr Howard discussed the uncertainty around his leadership ­before the 2007 election, ­acknowledging he had been told a majority of his colleagues believed the Coalition would lose under him. However, he believed it had been too late for change and would have destroyed his logical successor, Peter Costello.

Australia went to war in Iraq with the US and Britain, with the allied forces claiming the Iraqi regime had weapons of mass ­destruction. None were found.

Asked how he felt when none were found, Mr Howard said: “Well I felt that, you know, I felt embarrassed. I did.

“I couldn’t believe it because I had genuinely believed it. So, ­incidentally, did Kevin Rudd.

“Kevin Rudd made a speech saying that it was an empirical fact that Iraq had WMDs. He later on said that I’d taken the country to war based on a lie.’’