Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was of real interest to me to have the opportunity to speak on this motion on the apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples. I was fairly happy that most of the members were going to talk about the apology and the historic occasion which occurred last week, but I have picked up on a number of media reports and the various reactions and the understandings of the apology from the other side of the House. I know speakers from both sides have many perspectives on it. However, the seat of Forde is a Gold Coast hinterland seat and to the south and to the east are the conservative seats of Fadden, McPherson and Moncrieff. Those seats, like part of the seat of Forde, have media coverage by the Gold Coast Bulletin, a major publication. In fact, its Saturday paper has a circulation of about 76,000 copies. I was very concerned last Saturday about an article written by a young journalist called Robyn Wuth. I am sure that Robyn wrote the piece with good intentions, to raise the level of debate and to cover the reaction from all sides of politics and from the community about the apology. I hope that it was a piece designed to raise a contention and maybe produce more understanding of the debate or at least to articulate what I know a lot of people in the community were saying about the apology.

Many members would have received many emails about the issue, but a chain email that has been circulated is becoming most concerning to me. The email, which I believe derived from an email that was circulated in Canada when they were looking at the indigenous issues of the Canadian Indians some years ago, carries a range of fleeting statements. People can have their say—Australia is a democracy—and this is certainly an opportunity to have a debate, but I was rather concerned when this journalist wrote a feature article in the Gold Coast Bulletin. I seek leave to present the article.

Leave granted.

I ask that all members have a look at this article. It was in a major publication. This is something that you would expect, dare I say, from some of the more conservative areas of western Queensland—and that is not to cast any aspersions on western Queensland, but they certainly do have a different view, for a range of reasons, to those of us in metropolitan seats. I will read a number of paragraphs from the article, and you will see where this is going. I am sure, as I said, that the young journalist was trying to raise the level of debate. It questions the level of freedom of the press in this country. I am quite happy that a story like this has been written. I ask that members on the other side of the House consider their responses, certainly those members from the Gold Coast seats that are covered by this publication. The journalist is asking what this is all about. The headline is ‘What a sorry lot of rot’, which in itself is a bit concerning. She says:

As P.G. Woodhouse said: ‘It is a good rule in this life never to aplologise. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.’

To be honest, I’m sick of all this namby-pamby boo-hoo-ing about bloody saying sorry.

How much of this is hype and how much of it actually happened?

That is concerning. There is plenty of evidence that a condition or situation occurred.

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