Oz PM Tony Abbott rebuffs Booker Prize winner criticism
17 Oct 2014 5:46 AM IST
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday brushed off criticism about Australia’s environmental policies by newly crowned Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, saying the country had ‘a very, very strong’ recordFlanagan, an Australian, hit out at the government on Tuesday after being awarded the prize in London for his book ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’, inspired by his father’s experience as a prisoner of war.
He told the BBC he was ‘ashamed to be Australian’ after Abbott declared that ‘coal is good for humanity’ when opening a new mine in Queensland state this week.‘Australia has the most extraordinary environment and I don’t understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that’s unique in the world,’ said the author, a campaigner for the preservation of old growth forest.Abbott said he had not read Flanagan’s book but ‘it must be pretty good or it wouldn’t have won’, while defending his govt’s environmental policies.
He told the BBC he was ‘ashamed to be Australian’ after Abbott declared that ‘coal is good for humanity’ when opening a new mine in Queensland state this week.‘Australia has the most extraordinary environment and I don’t understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that’s unique in the world,’ said the author, a campaigner for the preservation of old growth forest.Abbott said he had not read Flanagan’s book but ‘it must be pretty good or it wouldn’t have won’, while defending his govt’s environmental policies.
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