Revisiting the sins of their fathers wouldn't be fair to modern Australia...

I don't believe that the sins of their fathers should be revisited on modern Australia.

I dedicate this post to my many Australian friends in the blogesphere:

The comments from an extremely outspoken backbencher in New Zealand to the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, that he was a rascist b.....d were insulting and totally broke unwritten conventions between members of parliament from different countries. Hone Harawira of the NZ Maori Party is the son of his mother alright - she is a rude and outspoken Maori activist who reduced the current New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark, to tears on the Waitangi marae during our Waitangi Day (NZ Day) celebrations many years ago when Helen was Leader of the Opposition. Hone Harawira's comments were aimed at the media for his own agenda.

I have been around the traps for many years now and have read some of

Australia's early history, especially that concerning their indigenous Aboriginal people - some of it does not make for good reading. But as I wrote, it is history. I don't think there are many countries who don't have skeletons in their historical closet, and that includes New Zealand. While our record with our Maori people is arguably better than that of Australia's record with their Aboriginal people - our treatment of Chinese immigrants in the 19th Century was despicable even if all caucasian societies were similar in their treatment and attitude towards them. Hone Harawira should also look closer to home at the problems that exist in his society in relation to child abuse and other related matters.

Regardless of the fact I may not share John Howards personal political viewpoints, he has as Prime mInister of Australia been a great friend to New Zealand, something echoed by New Zealand PM, Helen Clark. There has been more achieved between the two countries than even before with Labor Whitlam or Hawke administrations.

The Australian society of today is obviously acutely aware of the situation and what needs to be done over there to rectify it. I have never been to Australia, so I have not witnessed at first hand the attitude that still exists in some more rural areas, or how most Australians are working overtime to come up with solutions to a problem that has existed since the 18th Century.

No, I don't believe the sins of the fathers should be revisited on the modern generation of Australians.