Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend

This weekend is a three day holiday ‘celebrating’ the Queen’s birthday.

Despite being a foreigner living in a foreign country, Queen Elizabeth II is still our head of state. When this will change and we become a republic is anybody’s guess as there are a few more important matters going on at the moment.

But it does bring to mind that when the British arrived back in 1778 to establish a penal colony in what is now Sydney, the lives of Australia’s indigenous population changed forever and for the worse.

It’s estimated 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in Australia, representing around 3% of the total population.

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has reignited the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in Australia, especially since it has been National Reconciliation Week.

432 Indigenous Australians have died in custody since 1991. 

Most recent data shows that although 3% of the Australian population identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Indigenous adults are 15 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous Australians. Statistics also reveal that Indigenous juveniles are 26 times more likely to be incarcerated, while the fastest-growing prison population in Australia is Indigenous women.

In fact, on a per capita basis, we lock up Indigenous Australians at four times the rate of black Americans.

Many social media users are also drawing comparisons between what happened to George Floyd to the death of 26-year-old Dunghutti man David Dungay in a Sydney prison. Dungay died while being restrained by five prison guards at Long Bay jail in 2015. He said “I can’t breathe” 12 times before he died. To date, the five guards have not faced any disciplinary action.

So it’s little surprise that, despite COVID-19 social distancing rules, large protests have been planned for this weekend.

Hopefully they are peaceful.

Our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison said last Monday,

“As upsetting and terrible that the murder that took place–and it is shocking, that also just made me cringe–I just think to myself how wonderful a country is Australia. There's no need to import things happening in other countries here to Australia.

Australia is not the United States.”

Talk about head in the sand. 

But what do you expect from a evangelical (Hillsong) conservative leader? Thankfully he hasn’t done the ‘stand in front of a church with bible in hand thing’......as yet!
Update: 6th June 9am.
The Sydney protest has been declared illegal by the State Supreme Court on COVID-19 transmission grounds. 
This means trouble!
Update: 6th June 4 pm.
The NSW Court of Appeal has ruled that a Sydney rally held in support of the Black Lives Matter movement is an authorised public assembly, overturning a NSW Supreme Court decision on Friday which declined to make that declaration. The decision was delivered at about 2.45pm, 15 minutes before the planned start time of the demonstration. Crowds who had gathered for the protest cheered as the news filtered through.

Update: 6th June 6pm
Thousands protest in capital cities and regional towns.
Reports are all were peaceful.

20,000 in Sydney

30,000 in Melbourne
30,000 in Brisbane