7 October 1996
ABC 7.30 Report centered on the 'Stolen Generation', the taking of generally half-caste children under the Aboriginal Ordinance into Government and Chuch care. Some children were fostered and adopted by white families. The policy was in place from the turn of the last Century to the early 1970s and involved 10,000s of children many accommodated at the Kahlin Compound and Rita Dixon Home in Darwin. It was an indiscriminate policy opposed by Shane Stone. Amid allegations of genocide and forced assimilation, the fallout escalated in Australia culminating in a class action against the Commonwealth. Ultimately a Report was tabled in the Federal Parliament. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a historic apology that was not fully endorsed across party lines. Shane Stone supported the apology and published a note to the Coalition members. He came under intense criticism on the conservative side for doing so. In its 1997 report from the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, Bringing Them Home, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HEROC) declared these removals to be immoral, and in some circumstances, illegal. Litigation largely failed due to a combination of reasons. The interview featured 2 members of the 'Stolen Generation' Hilda Muir and Marjorie Foster.