Australia's Aborigines are split on the apology; by reports, most welcome it as a positive sign, though some say that an apology without reparations is not good enough, as talk is cheap; in the words of one, "the blackfella gets the words, the whitefella keeps the money".
Epic fail.
Yeah, I think the references to diggers was trying to make some point about how that saintly generation could never do any wrong, were always acting out of the kindness of their hearts, all that. His speech was more an apology to elements within the Liberal party than an apology to the stolen generations, and I think he's ashamed for having had to make it. Unforgivable, however, are the likes of other Liberal MPs, Wilson Tuckey and a handful of others who boycotted the sitting, and Chris Pearce, who spent the speech reading a magazine, then refused to stand and applaud Kevin Rudd when the rest of his colleagues did. Effete arseholes.
I didn't make the ceremony myself, but I heard later that Brendan Nelson also called on the memory of the diggers of Gallipoli, how this is relevant fails me. Apparently in Melbourne town people turned their back on (the image of) him (on the big screen) in Federation Square, and eventually someone just pulled the plug and the screen went dead. lols.