"In some cases, children were wrongly removed; in other cases, they were removed for good reason; in other cases, they were given up; and in other cases, the judgment on the removal is obscure or difficult to make." Mr Howard warned that an apology also ran the risk of people thinking they had now "ticked the box" on action to redress the problems of indigenous Australia, which included an unacceptably high mortality rate compared to non-indigenous Australians.
It was the second address Mr Howard has made in the US in a week in which he defended his legacy and, in the process, embarrassed the Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson. Dr Nelson has dropped many of Mr Howard's policies, including on the apology, Work Choices, climate change and withdrawing troops from Iraq. On the apology, Mr Howard said his view was shared by Noel Pearson, a man he regarded as "the voice of contemporary indigenous Australia more than anybody else". He also turned to what he said was the "broader issue": 20 or 30 years of failed policies in relation to indigenous affairs.
"I think we persevered for too long with the notion of separate development. I think the only way the indigenous people of Australia can get what we call a fair go is for them to become part of the mainstream of the community and get the benefits and opportunities available from mainstream Australian society, whilst recognising … the particular and special place of the indigenous culture in the life of the country." Mr Howard also rejected suggestions from a questioner that this issue and his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol had cost the Coalition the election. "The first lesson I learned is, you win some, you lose some," he said. "I did have the opportunity of winning four elections. I am not going to give an instant retrospective."
He said his position on Kyoto was a "very simple one" - that Australia would have been disadvantaged by the possibility of two countries not assuming "the same obligations as we might have assumed". This would have imposed penalties on emerging Australian industries that did not apply in other countries. This was sufficient argument not to sign, he said. The irony was that Australia, which did not ratify Kyoto, would meet its targets while "a large number of European countries and Canada" would not. He said it always struck him as "interesting" that the Europeans and British were prepared to sign Kyoto at the same time as the former Eastern Bloc was deindustrialising and Britain was closing its coalmines. "I am quite proud that we are going to meet our target, which is a damn sight better than many countries in Europe," he said.
Mr Howard again described it as a mistake for Australia to walk away from his Work Choices changes and again warned that this would hurt the economy. Asked how he had changed Australia during his 11½ years as prime minister, Mr Howard said he had ended the "pointless debate about our identity" and engendered "a rather positive view about Australian history and Australian achievement".
"I think our sense of national pride is stronger now than it was in the 1990s, less ambiguous, and that's tremendously important." Mr Howard pointed to the deepening of the US alliance and the free trade agreement, revealing after the speech that he and his family had dined with the US President, George Bush, and his family at the White House last Thursday. Asked what he would do on his return from his five-week speaking tour of the US, he said: "Oh, a number of things. Enjoy myself."
File Photo of John Howard. 

Former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard has criticised the Rudd Labor government for apologising to the Stolen Generations in parliament last month. Mr Howard was prime minister before the election last year.

Mr Howard's successor, opposition leader and leader of the Liberal party, Brendan Nelson supported the apology, making a speech of his own in parliament. The apology was unanimously supported by the House of Representatives.

While speaking to students at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the former Prime Minister defended his decision not to apologise to indigenous Australians during his 11 years in office.

"I do not believe, as a matter of principle, that one generation can accept responsibility for the acts of an earlier generation. I don't accept that as a matter of principle," Mr Howard said.

"In some cases, children were wrongly removed; in other cases, they were removed for good reason; in other cases, they were given up; and in other cases, the judgment on the removal is obscure or difficult to make."

Mr Howard said the apology was dangerous as it led many to believe that the government had "ticked the box" on indigenous issues in Australia. "The third reason I wasn't in favour of it was that it seems to me that there is a real danger that when we do something like that, there's a psychological reaction of the indigenous box has been ticked, and we've solved the problem,"

"The commitment to do practical things such as reducing the gap between the life expectancy of indigenous Australians and other Australians, which is unacceptably high, is pushed into the background," the former PM told listeners.

Mr Howard said there had been a failure over the past few decades to address indigenous affairs. "I think we persevered for too long with the notion of separate development. I think the only way the indigenous people of Australia can get what we call a fair go is for them to become part of the mainstream of the community and get the benefits and opportunities available from mainstream Australian society, whilst recognising … the particular and special place of the indigenous culture in the life of the country," said Mr Howard.

Mr Howard rejected suggestions from a member of the audience that his refusal to apologise to indigenous Australians and refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol lost his government the election. "The first lesson I learned is you win some, you lose some,"

"I did have the opportunity of winning four elections," said Mr Howard.