Then and now

Richard Flanagan, 2007 (on John Howard's intervention in dysfunctional Aboriginal communities):

"For 10 years the trauma at the heart of Australia had not only been denied, but exacerbated. Now there was a damburst, a national outpouring of despair and anger. With every day since he announced his plan, the clamour has grown only louder. And Howard - journeying like Quixote into the heart of a nation's great historical wound that he had denied for 10 long years, seeing only a windmill of an election - seemed neither to comprehend nor care, as the ride grew rougher and stranger with every passing day."

Richard Flanagan, August 27, 2009 (asked about his attitude to the intervention on ABC's Q and A):

"I haven't been to these communities, so I don't know."