Australia's new government will issue a formal apology to Aborigines for the abuses they suffered in the past, prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd has promised.
Mr Rudd, whose Labor Party swept to power in an election on Saturday, said the apology would come early in his first parliamentary term.
Outgoing Prime Minister John Howard had repeatedly refused to say sorry.
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But Mr Rudd signalled his administration's change of direction soon after Labor's election victory.
"It will be early, early in the parliamentary term," Mr Rudd said of his planned apology.
"However, we would frame it in a consultative fashion with communities, and that may take some time," he added.
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