Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to the school at the center of the Gina Rinehart controversy, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, suggestions they censored mining magnate Gina Rinehart by only playing part of her speech are a misinterpretation of their actions.

Gina Rinehart takes issue with climate change ‘propaganda’ in speech to private girls’ school

Mining magnate complains students were made to watch Al Gore documentary in video that was edited by her former school

Michael McGowan @mmcgowan
Thu 7 Oct 2021 18.30 AEDT

The mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has taken aim at what she called climate “propaganda” during a speech to high school students, which was later partially edited out by the principal because a historic assembly was “not the context or the time” for it.

Rinehart was asked to give a video address to students for the 125th anniversary of St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Perth, her former school.

The school said the speech was only supposed to go for five minutes, but it ran for 16.

…

But the speech was not run in full by the school, prompting claims of censorship by spokespeople for the mining billionaire.

In a statement to the West Australian newspaper, her spokesperson said it was “very unusual for Mrs Rinehart to be asked to give the keynote speech, then the morning of the speech be told it would in effect be censored”.

“It’s very, very sad to see after the school’s fine history of education over more than a century [that it is now] subject to the political views of its new headmistress,” the spokesperson reportedly said.

But the school said the video sent by Rinehart had been “much longer than the allotted five minutes” and the school was “only able to play the first five minutes which shared her recollections of her time at the school”.

“I can confirm that the messaging in the video was not shared in its entirety with the students at this assembly,” a school spokesperson said in a statement.

“The School encourages our students to think critically and analyse all facts presented to them, particularly in this age of the internet. The School does not endorse the personal views shared in the full video.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/07/gina-rinehart-takes-issue-with-climate-change-propaganda-in-speech-to-private-girls-school

The following is a video of Gina Rinehart’s speech. The school admits they only played the first five minutes to students.

There seems a very simple solution to this disastrous PR stumble – play the speech in full, to eliminate any suggestion of censorship, and invite Gina and any experts she wants to bring to answer questions from the students. The school should also invite a few of Gina’s critics, say a member of the Climate Council or CSIRO, to present their side, and also answer questions.

What a learning experience that would be for students – a battle of wits, debating one of the hottest topics in Australia, played out right in their school, with the students themselves invited to participate.

via Watts Up With That?

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October 9, 2021