Former political staffer and Sky News host Peta Credlin has issued another apology, 18 months after she wrongly linked Melbourne’s South Sudanese community to a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.
Originally, Credlin issued an apology over remarks concerning the South Sudanese community in June 2020 soon after the segment went to air.
Sky News told B&T that following a separate and more recent complaint about the same broadcast, Peta Credlin engaged in extensive consultation with other South Sudanese community members.
Credlin made a further apology on last Friday’s episode of Credlin as soon as the agreement was reached.
Credlin gave her apology on Sky News, where The Guardian has reported she said: “In June last year while commenting on the Covid-19 pandemic, the escalation of new infections in Victoria, and various public health measures.
“I incorrectly linked the South Sudanese community to a cluster of cases that had developed following an end-of-Ramadan dinner in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
“This was factually wrong, and I again deeply regret the error. On the basis of that error, I made various other statements that I accept have caused genuine hurt and offence to South Sudanese community members. It was not my intention.
“My statements were understood to mean that the South Sudanese community had been reckless, irresponsible, or even deliberate, in breaching social distancing requirements, that the community had failed to adapt its cultural practices like other Australians, and that this was putting Australians at risk. I do not believe there was any truth to those inferences.”
Peta Credlin has made an incredibly detailed and lengthy apology to the South Sudanese community. It's the biggest backdowns I've ever seen.https://t.co/AnrkyUNYhC
— amanda meade (@meadea) December 4, 2021
The four-minute apology comes after Credlin’s remarks last year in June on Sky News, according. to SBS, Credlin said: “This just underscores why new migrants need to urgently learn English … so that they can quickly become part of mainstream Australian society.
“When are we going to wake up to the fact that encouraging people to live here as South Sudanese speaking Dinka, rather than as Australians speaking English, is not good for our society? It’s not good for cohesion and not even good for our recently arrived migrants.”
