Midnight Oil again brought the politics of Reconciliation to the fore during their performance at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics . Then Prime Minister John Howard had triggered controversy that year with his refusal to embrace symbolic reconciliation and apologise to Indigenous Australians and members of the Stolen Generations . But he had also claimed their reconciliation-themed single " Beds Are Burning " was his favourite Midnight Oil song . Midnight Oil performed the song at the ceremony with the word SORRY conspicuously printed on their clothes as a form of apology to indigenous people for their suffering under white settlement , and to highlight the issue to Howard , who was in the audience at the Olympic stadium as an estimated one billion people watched on television . Midnight Oil had consulted with tour mates Yothu Yindi and other indigenous activists , so that their performance would bring popular protest to the world arena . In 2001 , when Australasian Performing Right Association ( APRA ) surveyed 100 music industry people for their Top 10 Best Australian songs of all time , " Beds Are Burning " was voted No . 3 behind The Easybeats ' " Friday on My Mind " and Daddy Cool 's " Eagle Rock " . At the 2001 APRA Awards ceremony " Beds are Burning " was shown on video and introduced by Australian Democrats Senator Aden Ridgeway as an indigenous spokesperson on Reconciliation . " Power and the Passion " was also listed in APRA 's Top 30 best Australian songs
closing ceremony
2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony
Midnight Oil