It must be unprecedented ... at least in recent Australian history. The Premier of a state effectively invites its most famous award-winning writer - a Rhodes Scholar with an enviable world reputation, the best ambassador a State could have - to leave.
Why? Because he dares to disagree ... dares to have an opinion of his own.
This is what Richard Flanagan wrote:
"I challenge Paul Lennon to a public debate in the Hobart Town Hall, man to man, without his army of spin doctors and minders. Let the Tasmanians in the audience decide who is the real coward."
This is what Premier Paul Lennon told commercial TV (Southern Cross) on Friday:
"Absolute rubbish ... he's a fictional author trying to turn fiction into truth..."
and,
"Richard Flanagan and his fiction is not welcomed in the New Tasmania".
Who is welcome, then, Mr Premier? Bullies, lackeys, those whom some Star Chamber of carefully chosen cronies or rich business mates decides? A Star Chamber with this warning over its portals:
"Toe the line or you don't work in Tasmania..."
Perhaps, Premier Lennon, we should return to early colonial days when Tasmanian Governors dealt with recalcitrant writers who dared to have an alternative view by jailing, or threateneing to hang them:
When the Editor is the Defendant: Freedom of the Press in Van Diemen's Land, Nicola Goc
Here's today's reports:
Lennon rejects public face-off, THE MERCURY
Premier challenged to debate Bacon legacy, ABC
(The Examiner was to have run Flanagan's article in full...)
RAPID RESPONSE EMAIL: What do you think?
If you bounce,
tuffinlindsay@hotmail.com
Saturday, July 24, 2004