Yahoo News Morrison says Australia should not import Black Lives Matter protests after deaths-in-custody rally
Scott Morrison has warned against “importing the things that are happening overseas to Australia” after protesters gathered in Sydney to denounce the killing of George Floyd in the United States and to rally against Indigenous deaths in custody. Further protests are planned in cities around Australia in the next few days.
The prime minister acknowledged during a radio interview on Thursday that Australia also had problems “in this space” that it needed to address, but insisted those issues were being dealt with and “we don’t need to draw equivalence here”.
“We don’t need the divisions that we’re seeing in other countries – we need to stick together and look after each other,” Morrison told 2GB.
His comments came after hundreds of people marched through Sydney on Tuesday, chanting “black lives matter” and protesting against Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia and the killing of Floyd in the US and a candlelight vigil was held in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
Protesters in Sydney chanted “I can’t breathe” and “Justice today, for David Dungay” – the 26-year-old Aboriginal man who said “I can’t breathe” 12 times before he died in 2015 while being restrained by five prison guards.
Dungay is one of at least 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the royal commission in 1991, the Guardian’s latest analysis shows. There have been at least five deaths since Guardian Australia updated its Deaths Inside project in August 2019, two of which have resulted in murder charges being laid.
The conservative talkback radio host Ray Hadley asked Morrison about protests in Australia during an interview on Thursday morning. Hadley said he had received emails from his listeners who were concerned to see hundreds of people in streets “holding disgusting signs about our police force” without complying with physical-distancing requirements.
In response to the question, Morrison said he agreed people should observe physical-distancing rules during any protests in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Australia was a free country, Morrison continued, so any suggestion of stopping protests “would jar with Australians, rightly”.
“But at the same time people have got to exercise responsibility,” he said.
“And at the same time, you know, we shouldn’t be importing the things that are happening overseas to Australia.
“I’m not saying we don’t have issues in this space that we need to deal with but the thing is we are dealing with it. And we don’t need to draw equivalence here.
“We should be Australians about this and deal with it our way, and we are.”
Morrison said one of the reasons Australia had done well to get through the Covid-19 crisis was because people were genuinely banding together and supporting each other “and what we don’t want is people dividing people”.
Related: Hundreds march in Sydney to protest against Indigenous deaths and George Floyd killing
“So we respect people’s right to protest, but equally protesters have to respect all other Australians in how they conduct themselves,” he said.
“Whether it’s this protest or other protests, I think all Australians are OK with there being protests, but when they see people inconvenience others just trying to get to work or do things like that, well, they obviously get the irrits. And I think it’s important that everyone respects everyone.”
Most of the recommendations from the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991 have either not been implemented or only partly implemented.
New South Wales introduced race hate laws two years ago but so far, not a single person has been charged.
This week, a NSW police officer was placed on restricted duties after footage surfaced of him tripping a 16-year-old Indigenous boy while arresting him in Sydney, slamming the teenager face first on to bricks.
The boy’s family called for an end to “police investigating police”, and told media they had felt “angry”, “frustrated” and “afraid” after watching the footage.
At a media conference earlier on Thursday, Morrison said the scenes around the world were distressing and he was “grateful for the wonderful country we live in here”.
He pointed to the Closing the Gap initiative and ongoing discussions with the states and territories as “important work” and added that he met regularly with the peak Indigenous groups in Australia.
