‘I am sorry’: Prime ministerial apology as transformational leadership

The apology to the Stolen Generations delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the House of Representatives in February 2008 remains a distinctive landmark in Australian political life. 1 Yet, viewed from a distance of five years, Rudd's speech emerges as but one, albeit a significant one, in a sequence of apologies made by Australian politicians.Before Rudd, state and territory parliaments delivered apologies recommended by the Bringing them home (1997) report of the Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.Following his apology to the Stolen Generations, Rudd apologised again, in November 2009, to the Forgotten Australians -those who, as children, were removed from their families and institutionalised, including children forced to migrate to Australia. 2 In November 2012, the Defence Minister Stephen Smith apologised in parliament to members of the Australian Defence Force who had been sexually abused.In March 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologised to mothers and children caught up in the practice of forced adoptions. 3 This wave of Australian political apologies has followed in the wake of apologetic speeches by national