An orgy of self-pity and lacerating self-loathing - and the usual abuse and ignorance

Two recent surveys showed that two-thirds of Australians did not want the government to issue a formal apology to indigenous Australians for past wrongs. It is not that they deny that injustice and suffering was inflicted on some indigenous people at some time in the past. It's that they do not think a formal apology is appropriate or required. Certainly it is not required to redress the shocking circumstances that many indigenous people exist in - despite the billions spent and all the sanctimonious hair-pulling and renting of garments the PC-class indulged in as they persisted in pushing policy that was a total failure.

Their combined effort through the media and government and non-government organisations put a clamp on John Howard's efforts to apply practical solutions to the terrible problems. It was only in the last phases of the Howard government that the degradation and sexual abuse of children in some aboriginal communities became intolerable, forcing the government to act in the face of the expected charge of racism and stealing of children. What irony that late in 2007 it was again demonstrated that Aboriginal children had to be taken from the family environment to ensure their survival.

But all that shocking reality means nothing to the delusion and fantasy that grips Australia's dominant political class. Satisfying the feeling embedded in that delusion and fantasy is far more important than the actual circumstances of child abuse and lying dead drunk in the gutter. Uttering pious platitudes and denouncing those who disagree with them as racist is usually sufficient before they return to their comfortable well-paid government jobs and forget about the sex abuse and the degradation of the gutter. A champagne or a gin tonic in front the new plasma television screen would ensure out of sight out of mind.

Yesterday's television broadcast of the Ruud Government's sorry festivities showed that an overflow of emotion provided more than the usual satisfaction. It also showed how intolerant and abusive those supporters can be towards those who do not agree with them.

No doubt Prime Minister Kevin Ruud's two senior advisers who played an exemplary role in the display of abuse and ill-will directed at opposition leader Brendan Nelson retired to their favourite bar to shout their mates to top-shelf boutique beer.

*Sky News ran a poll asking whether Brendan Nelson's speech deserves criticism. Sixty-six percent said NO, which corresponds with the polls that say two thirds of Australians did not want the Government's political apology.