Australia PM apologizes for slavery comment

Morrison had defended the legacy of British explorer James Cook, who in 1770 charted the site of the first British penal colony in Australia, which became present-day Sydney.

Canberra:Australia’s Prime Minister apologized on Friday to those who accused him of denying the country’s history of slavery.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a rare apology after critics pointed out tens of thousands of South Pacific islanders had been forced to labour on Australian sugar cane plantations in the 19th century and Australian indigenous people had been forced to work unpaid.

Morrison had defended the legacy of British explorer James Cook, who in 1770 charted the site of the first British penal colony in Australia, which became present-day Sydney. He told Sydney Radio 2BC, “While slave ships continued to travel around the world when Australia was established ... it was a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in Australia.”

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Morrison says his comments were not intended to offend and if I did, I deeply regret that and apologize for that. He added slavery was not lawful in the original Sydney colony.

Meanwhile, a Western Australia state government announced it will rename the King Leopold Ranges. State Lands Minister Ben Wyatt, an indigenous Australian, described Belgium’s King Leopold II as an evil tyrant.

The announcement came after a statue of the monarch, who forced many people into slavery in the Congo, was defaced and removed from the Belgium city of Antwerp.

(AP)