CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The ALP has today become the first major party to throw their support behind the 500,000 nationwide protestors who marched in support of the Black Lives Matter movement over the weekend.
In Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and smaller centres and towns across the country, socially-distant protesters gathered to highlight the systemic issues of racial profiling and police brutality within the law enforcement and the Australian courts system.
Protestors paid tribute to the more than 400 Indigenous people who have died in police custody since a royal commission into this exact issue was held in 1991.
While the Liberal Party and One Nation were quick to dismiss the demonstrations as nothing more than entitled lefties hypocritically violating social distancing measures, Labor remained predictably silent on the issue.
Until today.
In an official statement released from the ALP headquarters in Canberra, the opposition has once again highlighted the party’s commitment to closing the gap for education and incarceration rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The statement read as follows:
“While we apologise for that one Senator from Tasmania who posted an All Lives Matters meme, the Australian Labor Party today feels it is the right time to officially lend our support to the Black Lives Matter movement – both here and abroad.
This comes after a thorough analysis of the weekend’s protests. After taking into account that a vast majority of the protestors appeared to be wearing masks and strictly adhering to COVID-19 social distancing measures, we finally felt confident in our decision to latch onto this movement.
The fact that none of these protests descended into riots also helped our decision.
We understand this gesture may come across as too little, too late, but we ask our supporters to please recognise that Sky News would have ripped us a new one if we were seen to be supporting any form of aggression from the Indigenous community.
In summary, the ALP is now almost 100% comfortable with the aligning ourselves with these three words that have been seen on banners in almost every major capital city around the world over the last week.
While we do not yet have any policies aimed to resolve the issues of Indigenous over-representation in the prison system, or the systemically racist structures that have seen such high rates of police brutality towards black people and the number of such poorly investigated black deaths in custody, we ask Australians of every colour to remember that the leader of the opposition is a vocal supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League.
Go the Bunnies.”
This message was authorised by Authorised by W. Swan. ALP National President, 5/9 Sydney Ave, Canberra, ACT.
