What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of ? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne to deny the gravity of the injustice done? In a powerful indictment of past government policies towards the indigenous Australians, Robert Manne has written a brilliant polemical essay which doubles as a succinct history of how indigenous Australians were mistreated and an exposure of the ignorance of those who want to deny that history.