The West Australian

The Liberal Party has long been proud of the fact that it is not riven by factionalism like the Australian Labor Party but Brendan Nelson is quickly finding out it has its own tricky internal tensions.

 Dr Nelson is yet to stamp his authority on the leadership he assumed from John Howard. How long he remains Opposition Leader depends on how he deals with the competing philosophies.

One such topic is whether the Parliament should say sorry to the Stolen Generation.

The Liberal leaders position on this issue is largely shaped by how he got where he is and whom he replaced.

It gets down to party identity; whether the Liberal Party is as its name suggests a liberal party or whether it is what Mr Howard shaped it to be, the dominant conservative force.

Dr Nelson began swiftly enough on striking product differentiation from his former boss when he took the Opposition Leaders job five days after the November 24 election. He pronounced WorkChoices dead and supported ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

But on the question of saying sorry to the Aboriginal people for past governments assimilation policies he was in rhetorical lock-step with the ousted PM, telling Insiders host Barrie Cassidy (on his third full day into the job) he did not believe in one generation apologising for the policies of a bygone era.

In the past few days, when it became clear the Rudd Government would use the first week of Parliament to issue a formal apology to the Stolen Generation, Dr Nelson became firmer saying an apology would reinforce a culture of guilt among middle Australia and a culture of victimhood among Aboriginal people.

The significance of the sorry issue cannot be underestimated when it comes to Dr Nelsons tenure. The day before the November 29 Liberal leadership ballot, Malcolm Turnbull expressed support for an apology to the Stolen Generation. It was a turning point in the contest: five WA Liberals alone are said to have swung behind Dr Nelson on this single utterance from Mr Turnbull.

And when you consider that Dr Nelson won the ballot by 45 votes to 42, you see that Dr Nelson may feel somewhat wedged.

How he extricates himself from this predicament with his leadership unharmed is to be seen.

The Liberals meet next week in Canberra ahead of the resumption of Parliament on February 12 and the sorry question will be hotly debated.

If Liberal MPs and senators are granted a free vote on the apology - as some are keen to pursue - such a motion would surely pass the Senate, the last bastion of coalition domination.

At least three Liberal senators - Queenslands Russell Trood, Victorian Michael Ronaldson and Tasmanian Guy Barnett support saying sorry. Senator Trood has warned that if the Opposition refused to back an apology its indigenous credentials could be damaged similar to the Howard governments intransigence on ratifying Kyoto damaged its green credentials.

But if Dr Nelson allowed a free vote and saw the party split on the issue it would be an unedifying start to his leadership.

Alternatively, its hard to envisage the Liberals forming a party position to reject a formal apology without the likes of Liberal moderates Petro Georgiou and WAs Judi Moylan crossing the floor in the House of Representatives and other like-minded Liberals doing the same in the Upper House.

In the long run, you can see it might be far better tactically for Dr Nelson to change tack, convince his party to back an apology and move on.

Which is why you see his deputy Julie Bishop assuming a posture of open-mindedness on the apology, provided the wording of it is appropriate.

But yesterday Dr Nelson was giving no indication that he was about to adopt a more conciliatory tone.

In an interview on Sydney radio, shockjock Steve Price commented that he suspected "many people who do push for the word sorry to be uttered and say that its extremely important are urban dwellers whove never been out there and had a look".

Dr Nelson replied: "Well look, thats a sweeping generalisation and its easy for me to agree to it. I think in many cases youre absolutely right."

That kind of comment may offend some of his colleagues, even those former Liberal premiers including Richard Court and Jeff Kennett who made their own apologies a decade ago, but its not uncommon among other Liberals, at least one of whom voted for Mr Turnbull last November.

"A lot of drive for saying sorry comes from the leafy suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney," one senior Liberal said.

Ultimately, Dr Nelson must judge whether refusing to say sorry is the best way to assert authority or whether he makes a clean break by risking the wrath of the hardliners.

If this episode is to be one decided by semantics, therell be some hard bargaining ahead. That is, of course, provided the Liberals are given the exact wording of the apology before their two-day gabfest starting on Wednesday.

If the Rudd Government does truly want bipartisanship on saying sorry to the Stolen Generation, it must release the wording of the apology to the Opposition or risk being accused of playing politics on indigenous affairs.