Linda Burney warns MPs who walked out on apology not to ‘repeat the mistake’ with the voice

Linda Burney will tell a gathering to mark the stolen generations apology that those who walked out should not make the same mistake again. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, will warn those who boycotted the apology to the stolen generations in 2008 – among them the opposition leader, Peter Dutton – not to “repeat the mistakes of the past” and grasp the opportunity offered by the Uluru statement from the heart.

Dutton was the most senior of a handful of Coalition MPs who walked out of parliament when the then Labor prime minister, Kevin Rudd, formally apologised to the stolen generations in 2008.