Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no place for hate in Australia, but that's what we saw examples of on Sunday—hateful violence. We've seen the chilling footage. Dozens of men wearing black stormed Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne, a culturally significant site seen as sacred by many, where First Nations people have held a vigil to care for the remains of ancestors. We saw footage of men armed with sticks and rods. We saw brutal beatings of people at the camp. We saw the Aboriginal flag, an official flag, stomped into the mud. But they came to do more than that. They came to stoke fear and they came to silence. Since Sunday I've been hearing the hurt and anger of so many Australians, both First Nations and non-Indigenous. These thugs set out to attack migrants and First Nations people on the same day. They attacked our newest and our oldest Australians. I've spoken this week with Uncle Robbie Thorpe of Camp Sovereignty, and I thank Senator Lidia Thorpe for her advocacy in facilitating that conversation. I've also spoken to the Victorian Minister for Treaty and First Peoples and to Indigenous member of the Victorian Legislative Council, Sheena Watt.

These kinds of attacks, be they on religious institutions or be they on these culturally significant Aboriginal sites, use hate and violence to divide us. But we will not let them divide us. As Minister for Indigenous Australians, I condemn the violent and reprehensible attack on Camp Sovereignty in the strongest possible terms. I stand in solidarity with those affected, those injured and those impacted at the site, as well as those affected right across this country.