NEW England aspirant Barnaby Joyce has been forced to eat his words over an article he wrote about UNE students.
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In a column for The Canberra Times, Mr Joyce wrote about university students who patronised the Royal Hotel in pyjamas.
“The pyjamas come with smiles and glances and brash boys smoking cigarettes at the door and girls having discussions about the boys who have cigarettes at the door and other boys who hope girls would talk more about them ...
“They are revelling in the theatre of the dream ...”
In fact, the 190 undergraduates from Robb College were taking part in a week’s charity fundraiser for Can Assist, for which they raised more than $15,000.
Project manager for the fundraiser Connie Campbell said she and her colleagues were disappointed with the article.
“I’m upset because Barnaby Joyce just assumed that what we were doing was just to have fun and indulge in a rich lifestyle,” Ms Campbell said yesterday.
“As a graduate of the University of New England, he should understand there is a good intention behind acts such as this.
“We weren’t simply ‘smoking outside a pub’; we were raising funds for a rural-based charity.”
Her comments were supported by colleague and fellow student Dominique Spark.
“It wouldn’t have been hard for Barnaby to at least check his facts before making these assumptions,” she said.
Can Assist, or the Cancer Assistance Network, is a community-based charity helping rural families across NSW with medical, travel and personal costs. It also pays for accommodation for families of cancer patients.
Mr Joyce yesterday apologised for causing offence to the students.
He said his article was aimed at juxtaposing the lives of different rural communities across the region and he had given more than $1000 himself to the charity. He would choose his words “more wisely” in future.