Crikey

The Shepparton News had a great yarn yesterday:

Faye Lynam was thumping the words on a piece of paper on her kitchen table and demanding another apology, this time from federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.

A Shepparton resident and member of the stolen generations, Mrs Lynam was upset and angered by the words in front of her. They are words she recorded seven years ago for an oral history of the stolen generations but she believes they were misused — without her permission  — by Dr Nelson during his speech in response to the apology motion.

“How dare he use my words, the bloody bastard,” Mrs Lynam said yesterday, after reading the full text for the first time. “He doesn’t realise how much that has hurt, it was a toxic speech.”

Faye Lynam’s distress and anger were obvious when interviewed this morning by the ABC’s Jon Faine (listen to the audio here).

It’s been the story of the week, how Brendan Nelson was so eager to placate the Liberal Right that he delivered a speech on Wednesday that veered disconcertingly between an apology to the stolen generation and weasel words of appeasement for his own hardline party supporters. You have to wonder, listening to the tears of Faye Lynam, which aspect was the most sincere.