Australia adds $300 million in funding for Indigenous pledge

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fifteen years after the Australian Parliament’s historic apology to its Indigenous people for past wrongs, the government is announcing roughly $300 million in new funding to improve the lives of Australia’s original inhabitants. In 2008, a government apologized to the Indigenous population for “laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.” The apology was accompanied by an ambitious pledge to close the gap in life expectancies between Indigenous Australians and the wider population within a generation. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament on Monday the new funding reaffirms that the Close the Gap initiative as a top priority.