The Prime Minister said it was a national shame that many children were abused, sexually assaulted and denied an education, suffering emotional starvation and the cold absence of love and tenderness. The nation was sorry, he said.
“Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where often you were abused,” Mr Rudd said.

“As a nation we must now reflect on those who did not receive proper care.

“Robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not as innocent children, but regarded instead as a source of child labour.

“To those of you who were told you were orphans, brought here without your parents' knowledge or consent, we acknowledge the lies you were told, the lies told to your mothers, fathers and the pain these lies have caused for a lifetime.”
“He told me at the age of six or seven he tried to hang himself from the swings because he wanted to be with his brothers,” Mr Rudd said.

“He remembers being picked up from the train station on a freezing night in a big red truck and a row of numbered seats, he was told to sit in seat number three, he was given a number.”

Mr Rudd said there were about 30,000 children in care today and Australia must continue to ensure they are looked after properly, warning of the enormous social and economic cost of damaged children.

“If you hurt a child a harmed adult will often result,” he said.

Mr Turnbull said it was not just children who were damaged by the loss of their parents but mothers, in many cases single mothers whose children were taken away, had been denied their natural maternal right.

“Any nation that does not protect its children does not deserve to be called a nation,” Mr Turnbull said.

“This nation did not care enough for you.”

Mr Rudd said he hoped the apology represented a turning point for “shattered lives”.