Canberra Liberal apologises for writing book that paints rosy colonisation picture and skips frontier wars

ACT Liberal Peter Cain says his understanding of First Nations history and culture has developed considerably since writing his 2002 book History of Australia Composite: Peter Cain/Facebook

Peter Cain, the ACT’s shadow attorney general, has apologised “wholeheartedly” for a 2002 workbook he wrote which does not mention the frontier wars and paints a rosy picture of how Christian settlers helped First Nations peoples.

In History of Australia, a student workbook and teacher’s manual published by Light Educational Ministries, Cain wrote that when the British arrived, “some were afraid of the Aboriginals; some treated them badly”.