A reader gives an insight into the political make up of the Public Service. She, and all other staff at a Brisbane office have received this email with a pdf attachment from Reconciliation Australia

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will deliver an apology to the Stolen Generation in Parliament next Wednesday 13 February 2008. This is a significant event in Australia’s history and I encourage you to acknowledge it in your workplace.

The apology will be broadcast on ABC television from 7.55am. It is expected to go for approximately 90 minutes. I encourage Managers to allow staff to watch the broadcast if at all possible. In addition you might like to organise a special breakfast, morning tea or other function in your workplace to commemorate this event.

Is this rife across the board, I wonder? Are tens of thousands of government employees going to down pens and keyboards for 90 minutes on Wednesday?

Why does Gorge Orwell spring to mind. Did his novel 1984 just miss the mark by 24 years?

And what happens if my reader doesn’t join the party or the celebratory morning tea – is she marked down as a racist?

Government by symbolism certainly has some converts who think words will help turn back the years of apartheid that came from the H.C.Nugget Coombs/Whitlam days of outstations and noble savages.

They need a lot more.

Keith Windschuttle suggests the government gives them $50 billion if all of what is claimed is true. That might be tongue-in-cheek but he has other thoughts that are worth reading

For myself I am sorry that people think saying sorry is an answer and I wont be sorry when Thursday comes around – maybe Rudd can get on with running the country for all of us instead of just the Greenies and the Aborigines.

That is of course, after his 1000 advisors tell him what to do.