Scott Morrison: Black Lives Matter protesters should be charged if they defy advice and march
In
an interview on 2GB on Thursday morning ahead of a national cabinet meeting on
Friday, the prime minister said the weekend protests had interfered with the
capacity of states to ease physical distancing rules, including allowing more
people to attend funerals.
Victoria’s
chief medical officer, Brett Sutton, later confirmed there had been eight new
cases of Covid-19 in the state in the past 24 hours – including a 30-year-old
man who went to the weekend rally in Melbourne.
Sutton
said it was unlikely the infection had been acquired at the protest, but it was
possible the person was infectious.
“The rally last weekend is the only
legitimate real block to [easing] at the moment because we actually don’t know
right now whether those rallies on the weekend may have caused outbreaks,”
Morrison said. “We actually don’t know at this point and we won’t know – my
health advice is – for at least another week.”
Echoing
arguments from the US president, Donald Trump, Morrison also alleged the
protests against deaths in custody were being “taken over by other much more
politically driven leftwing agendas, which are seeking to take advantage of
these opportunities to push their political causes”.
It
was a “fair point” to raise issues about “people’s treatment in custody or
things like that” but he believed the activism needed to be kept in
perspective. Australia was “a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in
Australia”.
It
was important to be “honest about our history”, he said, but he neglected to
mention the exploitation of South Pacific Islanders brought to work on
Queensland plantations, or the well-documented cases of Indigenous people being
used for free labour in the pastoral industry and as household servants – a
practice that began during colonial times and persisted well into the 20th
century.
“We’ve got to acknowledge the positive
and the negative,” he said. “But, you know, I think we’ve also got to respect
our history as well, and this is not a licence for people to just go nuts on
this stuff.”
During
an interview on 3AW, the Melbourne radio host Neil Mitchell said about deaths
in custody: “There is a very sadly high level of Indigenous incarcerations –
about 30% compared to 3% of the population – but black deaths in custody, I
mean that’s a furphy isn’t it?
“I mean since the royal commission as
I saw it, there have been fewer Indigenous people per head of the prison
population dying in custody than have white people.”
Morrison
responded: “And that is welcome news, and initiatives that our government has
put in place has contributed to ensuring that that continues to be improved.
“There are targets specifically, both
in the former and in the new closing the gap targets, which address this issue.
In my home state there has been, I understand, one death in custody since 2000.”
The
deaths in custody royal commission found that Aboriginal people were more
likely to die in custody because they were arrested and jailed at
disproportionate rates.
There
have been at least 437 Indigenous deaths recorded since the royal commission
into Aboriginal deaths in custody ended in 1991. 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
economist and Labor parliamentarian Andrew Leigh also published research last
year that indicated Indigenous Australians were more likely to be in prison
than African Americans. Over the past three decades, the share of Indigenous adults
in prison has more than doubled, from 1,124 per 100,000 in 1990 to 2,481 per
100,000 in 2018.
The
death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police – sparking fury
that spilled over into mass protests in many US cities, including the capital,
Washington DC – resonated strongly in Australia.
Floyd’s
death sparked mass Black Lives Matter protests in Australia this past weekend;
participants demanded an end to Indigenous deaths in custody. Tens of thousands
of people took to the streets, defying an attempt from the police to ban one
demonstration through the courts, and despite pleas from the prime minister and
state leaders to stay home.
Morrison
said given the public health risks, local activists needed to desist from
further gatherings.
“I think they need to think carefully about that and again, I say don’t do it, and I’m glad that the police in New South Wales and the state government will take a strong approach on that,” he said.
He
said people defying that advice should be charged.
