Australia officially apologized to the Aboriginal ''stolen generation'' on Feb. 13, in a long-waited landmark occasion. As its first action on the second day of sitting, the 42nd Parliament, represented by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, apologized to Australia's indigenous people who were taken from their families by welfare officers between approximately the late 1800s through to the 1960s, in compliance with the White Australia policy. According to this policy, ''half-caste'' children were to be removed (forcibly if necessary) from their homes and taken to childrens homes or fostered out to white families. This also included indigenous children whose living conditions the welfare officer deemed be unsafe or unsatisfactory.