Extract from ABC News
Updated
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Richard Flanagan becomes the first Tasmanian to win the Man Booker Prize. (Random House/Ulf Andersen)
Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan, winner of the
prestigious 2014 Man Booker literary award, says he is "ashamed to be
Australian".
Flanagan took out the 50,000-pound ($88,000) prize, announced in London, for his novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.The novel, which tells the story of prisoners of war on the Burma railway, was one of six books short-listed for the international prize.
During a BBC interview, Flanagan was asked to respond to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's recent statement that "coal is good for humanity".
Flanagan, who has long been a vocal environmentalist, expressed his dismay.
"I'm very saddened because Australia has the most extraordinary environment and I don't understand why our government seems committed to destroying what we have that's unique in the world," Flanagan said.
"To be frank, I'm ashamed to be Australian when you bring this up."
The interview also touched on the Hodgman Government's recent repeal of the Tasmanian forestry peace deal which had ended years of conflict between loggers and environmentalists.
Flanagan, who had reservations about the Greens agreeing to the deal, lamented the politicisation of forests.
"I genuinely believe that people of Australia want to see these beautiful places, these sacred places, preserved, [but] the politics of the day is so foolishly going ahead and seeking to destroy them when there isn't even an economic base to it, when there is no market for the woodchips that would result from the destruction of these forests," he said.
"I think it's unnecessary and I think it's just politics being used to divide people that could otherwise be brought together on all that is best and most extraordinary in our country."
Flanagan is the first Tasmanian and fourth Australian to win the Man Booker award.
The judges described his book as a literary masterpiece.
In receiving the award, Flanagan said it was an extraordinary honour and he was astonished to win.
"I was glad to be on the long list, I was shocked to be on the long list, I was delighted to be on the short list," he said.
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