hearings in every capital city and in many regional and smaller centres. The first hearings took place on 4 December 1995 on Flinders Island with the last round of hearings ending on 3 October 1996 in Sydney. During the course of the inquiry 777 submissions were received, which included 535 Indigenous individual and group submissions, 49 church submissions and 7 government submissions. 500 of the submissions were made confidentially. Report summary Two reports were produced: Formal, 700-page report Bringing them Home and subtitled Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families Less formal and shorter community guide called Bringing them Home—Community Guide and subtitled "A guide to the findings and recommendations of the National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families". The Community Guide summarised the report's conclusions that "indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect indigenous people's daily lives. They were an act of genocide, aimed at wiping out indigenous families, communities, and cultures, vital to the precious and inalienable heritage of Australia". Recommendations The report made many recommendations, including that: Funding be made available to Indigenous agencies to allow Indigenous people affected by the forcible removal policies to record their history Reparations be made to people forcibly removed from their families, and that the van Boven principles guide reparation measures Australian Parliaments offer official apologies and acknowledge the responsibility of their predecessors for the laws, policies, and practices of forcible removal Government apologies Formal apologies have been tabled and passed by the Commonwealth Government, as well as the state parliaments of Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania and the territory parliament of the Northern Territory. It may be that all states have done this because Senator Aden Ridgeway was quoted in 1999 as saying that "every State Parliament has passed an apology". Former Prime Minister John Howard issued a statement of regret but resolutely refused to issue a formal apology. He has been quoted many times as refusing to take a black armband view of history. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who succeeded Mr. Howard, tabled a formal apology on 13 February 2008, which was passed unanimously. Federal Motion of Reconciliation Bringing Them Home recommended an official apology be offered by the Australian Government for past government welfare policies