Saying sorry is not an excuse to forget about people Mr Rudd.

At least not where we come from anyway. 

I wrote to Mr Rudd a couple of weeks back and asked about progress since, what has visibly become, the empty 'Sorry' speech he delivered a little over a year ago.  While we predicted at the time it seemed totemic, the passage  of time has revealed the hollowness of the words. He has not troubled himself to reply as he has not troubled himself to do anything at all about following up on the empty rhetoric of sobbing out the word 'sorry' a few times.

It was just background noise, designed to placate the masses who know no better and to make those who take everything at face value feel good while they sipped their latte and clapped themselves on the back for being so good, so kind, so thoughtful and so caring. 

It was patronising, vainglorious pap.

The people who pay the price for that wave of satisfaction amongst the 'chattering classes' are those who gaze at the self satisfied backs sitting at the cafe tables, creaking under the weight of tepid lattes, and the background noise of back slapping while they wonder why they ever troubled themselves to climb aboard buses and waste time listening to white noise from a Prime Ministerial static generator.

All they got for that trouble was empty rhetoric from ideologues.   And you can't live in that. 

From the Sorry Speech:

I therefore propose a joint policy commission, to be led by the Leader of the Opposition and me, with a mandate to develop and implement — to begin with — an effective housing strategy for remote communities over the next five years. It will be consistent with the government’s policy framework, a new partnership for closing the gap.

This announcement came as a complete surprise to the, then, leader of the opposition, Brendan Nelson.  He knew nothing of this 'joint policy commission' and over three months later there was still no details of this 'joint policy commission'. 

And the joint tour of Aboriginal communities the Prime Minister was going to undertake with the, then, leader of the opposition?

It does not appear to ever have been arranged either. 

The joint policy commission seems to also have fallen into the black hole of broken promises from which only more static appears to emanate.

Bipartisanship is a word without meaning to Prime Minister Rudd.  It has as much and as little value as 'sorry'.