I'm sorry, Joe Hockey. I'm sorry if
there is any suggestion at all, that I or anyone else I know doesn't
believe you, and thinks your apology has all the sincerity of the
school bully who would trip kids over in the hall and say “sorry”.
The audio is here, and I'm going to
take the liberty of parsing the “apology” Hockey gave in a soft
ego-stroking interview with Ben Fordham on 2GB – audio
here.
Ben Fordham introduces the subject by
offering the “out”: “Well, words can be taken out of context …
the poorest people don't have a house, a roof over their heads, let
alone a car to drive … Do you feel like your words have been
misinterpreted, or were they words you shouldn't have chosen in the
first place?”
Hockey: “I am really, genuinely sorry
[pause] that there is any suggestion, any suggestion at all, that I
or the government does not care for the most disadvantaged in the
community.
Read that again. He's not sorry for
being insulting or ignorant, he's sorry that someone else might have
interpreted his words, which he then repeats.
“I'm sorry about that interpretation,
I'm sorry about the words.”
Joe, this still falls short of
apologising for the insult. In the first half of the sentence you're
blaming the listener – “sorry for the interpretation” – and
the second half, you leave open to interpretation rather than saying
something clear and unequivocal.
Hockey: “And why? Because all of my
life, as everyone who knows me knows, all of my life, I have fought
for and tried to help the most disadvantaged people in the
community.”
This is not actually responsive to
the original insult. You're saying “You shouldn't be upset with me
because I'm a nice guy”. Still falling short of an apology.
“For there to be some suggestion that
I have evil in my heart, when it comes to the most disadvantaged in
the community, is upsetting. But it's more upsetting for those people
in the community.”
No, Joe, people were upset by
you, not alongside
you. The fake solidarity thing kind of rubs in the salt.
“So I want to make it perfectly clear
to the community that if there's any suggestion that I don't care
about you, or that I have evil intent towards you, I want to say that
couldn't be further from the truth, and I'm sorry for the hurt.”
Once again, the apology is attached
to “any suggestion that”.
Joe Hockey didn't
apologise for the insult, or for being plain wrong. He apologised for
the interpretation, the suggestion, for the words.
He still
thinks he's right.
