Aborigines+don't+want++apology+-&nbsp;Brough

=Aborigines don't want apology: Brough= October 22, 2007 - 6:24PM (Submitted by Alicia H) University students may want the government to formally apologise to indigenous people but Aborigines do not, Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough says. The issue of reconciliation was raised again during Sunday night's debate between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. Mr Howard has promised, if re-elected, to hold a referendum on constitutional recognition for Aborigines as the first Australians. But he continues to rule out a formal government apology to indigenous people for past wrongs, such as the forced removal of children from their parents. Mr Brough said people living in remote Aboriginal communities were not worried about the issue of a formal "sorry". "It's not what they want," he told Sky News. He said the government's efforts to improve Aboriginal living standards were focused on the 150,000 people living in remote communities, particularly in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Cape York in Queensland. "Have I been asked about sorry? The reality is I've been asked about those sort of things at ANU (Australian National University), at Melbourne University, I haven't been asked about those issues in remote communities," Mr Brough said. "What they ask me about is 'How do we get our kids to school, how do we get off the drugs, how do we stop the alcohol, how do we ensure that the beatings stop, the child abuse stops?' "I don't think Australians really, even today, appreciate the depth of despair that many communities are in." Labor wanted to reinstitute the Aboriginal lands permit system which had helped shield drug runners, alcohol runners and paedophiles, Mr Brough said. The government's intervention in the Northern Territory's indigenous communities includes abolishing the lands permit scheme. Critics say scrapping the permit system, which restricts outsiders' access to Aboriginal townships, has nothing to do with the government's stated aim of tackling child abuse in indigenous communities.