Colleen Harkin on Mornings with Chris Smith 2SM – 23 January 2026

Chris Smith:

Well, there’s a line between teaching history and loading kids up with adult political guilt, and a growing number of parents reckon our schools have crossed it. They’ve crossed that line. This week, a New South Wales mother has revealed her year five son was sent home with a classroom activity telling him, “Sorry starts with me.” It was a colouring in poster. Sorry starts with me. An apology, not discussed, not debated, but just assumed. The message to the 10-year-old, “You’re responsible. You should feel sorry. Be guilty.” I’m sorry, but this erodes pride that we should have in this country and it replaces it with self-loathing. Parents are now asking who authorised this and why are primary school kids being asked to shoulder moral blame for events they had no part in? None of us had any part in, and this isn’t an isolated incident.

It’s part of a broader ideological push inside classrooms driven by curriculum priorities that have drifted from education into activism, and as a parent of four kids, two still at school, I’ve had a gut full of it. Joining me now is Colleen Harkin, National Manager of the Institute of Public Affairs Schools Programme. Colleen, welcome to the show.

Colleen Harkin:

Oh, good morning.

Chris Smith:

Parents here colouring in activity and obviously think it sounds harmless. This worksheet though literally tells children, “Sorry starts with me.” That is a problematic idea for a 10-year-old to absorb, is it not?

Colleen Harkin:

Oh, absolutely. Look, to explain to your listeners, what happens is that the Australian National Curriculum mandates that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s history and culture is embedded into every subject and every year level, and it is mandated that it is a priority, which means that in sport, handwriting, music, maths, any subject you can think of, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders history and cultures should be included in it, embedded in it every opportunity. So this week, they have 13 Aboriginal name days during the year. They’re celebrated. We have NADOC week in July. We have Sorry Day. We have Reconciliation Week where the kids are saturated with this idea of apologising to the Aboriginal community for deeds that were done hundreds of years ago. So the colouring in sheet that your listener has provided you in with is the absolute, it’s just a sample of the tip of the iceberg. This goes on all day, every day in every school in the country.

Chris Smith:

You’ve warned this kind of material also embeds gloom and confusion and guilt. What does that look like in real terms for children who were still developmentally forming their sense of responsibility?

Colleen Harkin:

Oh, completely. So most schools do an acknowledgement to country I should say, every day, at least at assemblies. So every school would be doing it at least once a week, if not every day, and I’ll give you an example. I’ll quote from an acknowledgement to country that a couple of the schools around here near my hometown do, and they first of all acknowledge the Koori nation and all of that kind of stuff, and then they say and this is a quote, “Sorry for damaging your culture and taking your land and sorry for what was done. I am sorry for what was done to you and your people.” Now, that acknowledgement to country is being done daily by eight year olds. Their kids are being taught from these acknowledgements to countries that we’re not one nation. They’re being taught to pay homage to people because of their skin colour and heritage, not because of the quality of their character.

They’ve been told that they’re guests in their own country and that they’re living on stolen land and that they’re responsible for things that they of course didn’t do. This sort of idea that they are responsible for things that have been done in the past is outrageous. They’re also being told stories of these, and I’m talking children who are five and six years old here who are being taught about the stolen generation, and I can tell you, I’ve had loads of parents tell me that their five and six year old children cry at night and can’t get to sleep, worried about the children who have been stolen, worried if they’re going to come back to their families, and worried if they themselves are going to be stolen. This kind of material in any school is completely inappropriate, let alone for little tiny primary aged children.

Chris Smith:

But aren’t these schools saying that they’re just following the national curriculum? And if that’s the case, at what point does education cross the line into political activism?

Colleen Harkin:

Oh, I mean the curriculum is completely saturated with political activism, Aboriginality, and climate change, sustainability, but completely, this is an activist agenda. It is one thing to teach Australian history, and it should be taught, warts and all, but it should be taught at an age where the children can process the information. They can debate the merits of certain policies.

Chris Smith:

Yes.

Colleen Harkin:

It is not the place to have five and six-year-old children crying about the stolen generation or being told that they live on stolen land.

Chris Smith:

One mother said the real concern is that these ideas are introduced without parents present to help children process them. That’s the issue, isn’t it?

Colleen Harkin:

Oh, completely. It is completely opaque. Most parents wouldn’t know what their children are being taught during the day. As I said, because this idea of being embedded into every subject and every opportunity, you don’t know that for example, today your child’s done a colouring in sheet and said sorry, or that they’ve done handwriting and the letter S has been focused on this week so that we can all continually write, sorry, and focus on the letter S. You don’t know that in phys ed, they’ve done an activity where, and this is another example I’ve been given where in phys ed, children go in and they steal the items out of another classroom and then say, “That’s how it feels to be invaded.” So this sort of stuff goes on every day in classrooms around Australia.

Chris Smith:

Are you kidding?

Colleen Harkin:

No, definitely these are real stories that real parents tell me about, and they’re also examples of things in the national curriculum that they advise teachers to do this sort of stuff. There are organisations that provide all these worksheets where five-year-old children trace their hand and then colour it in the colours of the Aboriginal flag, and then they write they’re sorry. They’re sorry that they live on stolen land. Five and six-year-olds.

Chris Smith:

Broadly, the idea of being perpetually sorry as a race or as a nation towards indigenous people is barmy.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, these people, this generation of children are being taught that they are intergenerational oppressors and that they should grovel and apologise in perpetuity. There is no balance either to this, Chris. So for example, during NADOC week, which is an entire week celebrated in July, it just so happens that on July the 9th is Constitution Day, which is the day that the nation of Australia was created in 1900. I’ll guarantee you there’s not an utterance of that in any school in the country, and yet all week, the kids are being taught to apologise for existing.

Chris Smith:

Oh, you’re making me so cranky right now. Geez.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, parents should really take close note of what is going on in their children’s school because it is an activist agenda and there are a lot of children who say nothing, but feel the weight of what they’re being taught.

Chris Smith:

Colleen Harkin, speak up forever and widely about this because we need to stop it, and the only way to stop it is to start pushing back big time. Colleen, thank you very much for your time. Happy Australia Day too, by the way.

Colleen Harkin:

Yeah, and same to you and your listeners.

Chris Smith:

All right, National Manager of the Institute of Public Affairs Schools programme, Colleen Harkin. “I’d last in her job for about five seconds before I’d want to jab someone.” Maybe you’ve got a view on all of that, I’m sure you do. 13, 12, 69, Adam, we got some problem.

This transcript with Colleen Harkin on Mornings with Chris Smith 2SM from 23 January 2025 has been edited for clarity.