Good evening, as introduced, my name is Susan Moylan-Coombs, and I’m the Aboriginal Project Officer for the northern Sydney Aboriginal Social Plan, which encompasses eleven councils in this region, one of them being North Sydney. So I’d like to thank the organisers for inviting me here tonight, and it’s actually an acknowledgement of country that I do, because this is not my birth country. We’re here tonight on the homelands of the Guringai people, and as you’re probably aware, our tradition was oral tradition, so a lot of where the boundaries were, and still are for us, weren’t actually documented, so there’s a little contention about where those boundaries are. But some say that Guringai homelands extended from the north shore of Port Jackson, in the west bordered by Lane Cove river, in the east by the coast. Some say Pittwater, some say as far up as Tuggerah lakes. But the Guringai people were the traditional owners of this land, and I acknowledge country to remember those who have gone before us, because there are no known Guringai descendants who still live in the homelands. That’s not to say that there’s not a very vibrant aboriginal community who live here, but sadly for us, there are no elders from this place. I’d like to thank the organisers for inviting me here tonight, thank you. (Applause)

Genia McCaffery:

Thank you, Susan. Well, welcome to this, I think exciting night: Truth and Democracy Forum. And I guess our aim tonight is to do something that is rare in Australian politics – that’s a civilised and intelligent discussion of a complex issue that covers many different views and respects the democratic right of people to hold those different views. It’s also about listening to each other, not grandstanding and not shouting others down, and I would emphasise this – tonight is about a civilised discussion. People will have different points of view, and we should listen to them.

The format will approximately follow the BBC’s radio program Any Questions? And hopefully out of tonight some of our media might think about doing something similar. We will begin with a number of pre-submitted questions, which are printed on one of the sheets available on your seats. I will read out each question, and ask the fo ur panel members in turn to give their own answer. I’ll also give the panel members the opportunity to come back in reply to one of the later speakers. I will then briefly ask the submitter of the question for a few words of comment. The same procedure is done for each of the subsequent questions. If the panel all keep it short – say two minutes or so each per question – maybe I might just encourage them to stay to that two minutes - we’ll be able to have a few brief questions from the floor at the end of the session, and we’re aiming to close at about 9:30, so that afterwards we can stand around and talk about the issues that were raised tonight in an informal way. The session is being recorded, which is great, and there’ll be a full transcript published on the sydneypeace.com website.

Now it’s my pleasure to introduce our panel tonight: to my right, I have Tony Abbott, who is of course the Minister, the new Minister for Health and Ageing, and Federal Member for Warringah. (Applause) Tony is a former journalist and a manager of a concrete plant – that’s an interesting one, Tony. And he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994. Prior to entering Parliament he was Executive Director of the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. While most Ministers would find facing tonight’s audience and questions a challenge - I know Tony won’t find it a challenge – he’ll be relieved that it isn’t an audience of doctors and we’re not here to discuss Medicare – or the New South Wales hospital system.

Our next panellist, Donna Mulhearn, also to my right (Applause) is a former journalist, who in January, I’m sure many of you know, responded to a call for human shields and spent February and March this year in Baghdad, staying throughout the bombing campaign. She's also been an aid worker in Africa, India and East Timor. She left her job as a media adviser in the New South Wales Government late last year to travel, write and teach contemplative spirituality. In a few weeks time she is heading back to Baghdad to work on setting up orphanages for street children.

Our next speaker, Tanya Plibersek, also a journalist (Applause) – the journalists are thick on the ground tonight, is of course Labor MP for the seat of Sydney. She was elected in 1998, and is best known for her roles in the movement for refugees and against the war. According to the Bulletin late last year: “as a leftist member of the party's left faction,” – which is interesting - “she currently sits well outside the inner circle of power” but she “manages to simultaneously break and yet conform to the mould of a successful Labor politician.” We are very grateful for Tanya for stepping for Carmen Lawrence, who unfortunately, her mother is gravely ill, and she was unable to join us tonight, so thank you, Tanya. (Applause)

Now, Peter Macdonald, to my left, is not a journalist, he’s a doctor. He’s ex Independent State MP, I’m sure many of you will know, for Manly. He’s a past medical co-ordinator of refugee health programs with Medeçins Sans Frontières in Iran and with Timor Aid in East Timor. Peter stood as an Independent against Tony Abbott in the last Federal election. He said of that campaign “we can provide a voice on issues that the major parties aren't dealing with … people appreciate honesty” – and that’s really, I guess sums up our hope for the discussion tonight.

So, our first question comes from Mike Hartnell …

© NSPD 2003. Last modified 21/10/03.