Justin Mohamed (pictured above) the Chair of the peak body, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), said today that politicians from both sides of politics should be more responsible when making comments in the public arena about Aboriginal and other national issues.

You can download the NACCHO press release

 Mr Mohamed was commenting on the standard of this weeks public debate by a wide range of politicians questioning the “welfare on tap” tweet gaffe by Opposition Indigenous health spokesperson Andrew Laming, whose social media comment became a bigger local and national story than the actual underlying issues  that ignited the clash of families in the south Brisbane suburb of Logan.

 “The whole political and media landscape has changed with social media channels such as Twitter’s two million users in Australia replacing the traditional press release for news comment, public engagement and social policy debate.

 In this high profile media case we have both Aboriginal and Pacific Islander leaders trying desperately to inject calm into a long running feud and their efforts are not helped by politicians making “off the cuff”, random, inflammatory and irresponsible social media comments, rather than making high level positive contributions to the national policy debate about the underlying social determinants that often fuel these types of incidents” Mr Mohamed said.

Media contact: Colin Cowell 0401 331 251