TLF ID M008224
This clip is an excerpt from the 2009 documentary 'Honour among thieves', the first of a two-part television series entitled 'Rogue nation'. In a dramatised re-enactment, British Commissioner John Thomas Bigge investigates the colony of NSW in 1819. He is advised by John Macarthur, a member of the 'exclusives' class of free settlers and officers. Macarthur expresses dissatisfaction with Governor Lachlan Macquarie, saying that there are great opportunities in the new colony, but that Macquarie is keeping the convict labour to himself. Bigge is incredulous that the convicts are 'demanding their rights', and Macarthur says that 'there is a dangerous democratic feeling taking root here'. At the end of the clip, contemporary historian Michael Cathcart provides more context about the historical events.