Blacks condemn Goss on textbook

Wednesday, February 16, 1994 - 11:00

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE — Aboriginal organisations have slammed Queensland Premier Wayne Goss's decision to order the rewriting of a draft year 5 social studies source book.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Consultative Committee chairperson Bonnie Robertson said on February 9 that the move went against the principles of the National Reconciliation and Schooling Strategy.

"How can Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples trust the government if it continually vetoes any attempt to share Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives with all Australians?", she said.

Goss stepped into the controversy over the new source book by saying he objected to the book recommending that "invasion" was an acceptable term for students but that "settlement" was not when referring to Australia's European occupation.

The source book, which is on trial statewide, also suggests teachers not use the words "explorer", "pioneer" and "discoverer."

Continuing his campaign against so-called "political correctness", Goss said the need to explain Australian history honestly and fairly did not mean "that we have to reinvent the language".

Earlier, in an Australia Day speech, Goss called on Australians to reject "politically correct" language and behaviour as a fad generated by minority interest groups.

Queensland Teachers Union president Ian Mackie said on February 8 that the teachers' source book did not need revision.

"The debate on its 'political correctness' has been displaced ... it's actually historical correctness."

The Democratic Socialist candidate for the Brisbane City Council seat of Dutton Park, Ana Kailis, condemned the premier for authorising Orwellian "Newspeak" in the decision to rewrite the book.

"We now have direct government control of the content of education textbooks", she said. At a time when Australians are struggling to come to terms with the truth about our nation's founding and the forcible destruction of Aboriginal society, Goss steps in to back up the historical lie that white settlement just peacefully 'happened'.

"It seems Orwell's 1984 is just 10 years late in Queensland."