Rolf Harris says sorry... badly

It was overdue: Rolf Harris had finally getting round to saying 'sorry' for the line about Abos in Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. And, perhaps, it might just have worked, had he not decided to head off on an explanation of What Is Wrong With Aborigines:

'You sit at home watching the television and you think to yourself, "Get up off your arse and clean up the streets your bloody self" and why would you expect somebody to come in and clean up your garbage, which you've dumped everywhere? 'But then you have to think that it's a different attitude to life.'

He said Aboriginal children were never disciplined or expected to adhere to rules until adulthood. 'Till then, they have a totally carefree life to do what they want and that quite often involves smashing everything that they have,' he told The Age newspaper.

Mr Harris blamed Aboriginal traditional values for the appalling conditions in many communities.

He added: 'The attitude is that, in their original way of life, they would really wreck the surrounding countryside that they lived in and they would leave all the garbage and they would go walkabout to the next place.

'The traditional attitude is still there and I wish there was a simple solution – but I'm not certain.'

The Mail tries to not get caught in the crossfire, and instead tries to explain how a beloved entertainer might have recorded a song which called the indigenous population of Australia "of no further use":

The song was recorded in an era when racism against indigenous Australians was rife.

Which, presumably, makes it alright, then.