After a disastrous start to the year for the Prime Minister that has involved leaked text messages, a failed religious discrimination bill and intense scrutiny over the way the government has treated women, Scott Morrison has found himself in hot water again this week.

In a speech delivered to mark 14 years since the Rudd government issued an apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, Mr Morrison said, “sorry is not the hardest word to say, the hardest is I forgive you”.

The speech prompted fury from Indigenous leaders around the country, including a statement from the First People’s Assembly of Victoria which simply said, “Get in the bin”.

While the Prime Minister didn’t downplay the seriousness of the trauma inflicted upon the Stolen Generations, he has been criticised for the implication that survivors must give their forgiveness in order to heal.

Today on Please Explain, Indigenous affairs reporter and Gamilaroi man Cameron Gooley joins Nathanael Cooper to explore why the Prime Minister’s comments were so poorly received.