Past Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, made an apology to "the stolen generation" from Parliament House, Canberra, in early February 2008. He wanted to inform the indigenous community of the previous governments 'wrong doings' to their people of the past and wanted to give them relief from all the years of stress and heartache. Using repetitive language and emotive word choices, Rudd informs the audience of the parliament and indigenous communities and his intentions to equalise opportunities for all Australians, regardless of their origin. These features amongst other details form a solid, formal speech. .
Rudd uses distinctive spoken features including features such as; emphatic stress, when he is speaking about the future of Australians and Reparative language to make his speech more effective. He states "A future where we can harness the determination of all Australians, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity." This emphasises the "all" so that the indigenous communities feel a sense of involvement amongst the Australian culture, further equalising them to the rest of the country. Rudd also uses repetition when he lists all of the apologies he must make on behalf of the country. He stated, "We apologise for the laws of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted grief, suffering or loss on these our fellow Australians, we apologise for the removal of aboriginal and Torres strait islander children from their families, communities and country and we apologise for the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations." This repetition of "We apologise for," continuously supports Rudds contention to the audience, making sure his message is successfully carried across the nation. .
Rudd's firm use of emotive language highly conveys his contention to the audience.
