NATIONAL: A conservative online blog site has launched an internet campaign to close down the 40-year-old Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.
Menzies House is urging Australians to sign the petition calling on the federal government to shut down the site near Old Parliament House.
Menzies House managing editor Timothy Andrews said Australians should be judged by their character, not their colour.
“The Aboriginal tent embassy is a divisive attempt to create two Australias based on people’s race and prevents true reconciliation,” he said in a statement on Friday.
The tent embassy was established outside Old Parliament House 40 years ago on Friday to highlight the fight for land rights.
Protesters on Friday burnt an Australian flag at the entrance of the current Parliament House on Capital Hill as they called for Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia.
The flag burning followed a protest on Thursday by tent embassy supporters that sparked a security scare at a Canberra restaurant that ended up with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott being rushed away by security personnel.
“The tent embassy call for `sovereignty’ is little more than reverse-apartheid and is damaging to all Indigenous Australians,” Mr Andrews said.
But he also said Indigenous Australians had been let down by decades of unequal public policy.
“It is time we move beyond the failed policies of the past and treat all Australians as equals,” Mr Andrews said.
“It is time that the tent embassy is closed.”
The Menzies House campaign can be found at www.closethetentembassy.com.
AAP
Online petition for tent embassy closure
NATIONAL: A conservative online blog site has launched an internet campaign to close down the 40-year-old Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.
Menzies House is urging Australians to sign the petition calling on the federal government to shut down the site near Old Parliament House.
Menzies House managing editor Timothy Andrews said Australians should be judged by their character, not their colour.
“The Aboriginal tent embassy is a divisive attempt to create two Australias based on people’s race and prevents true reconciliation,” he said in a statement on Friday.
The tent embassy was established outside Old Parliament House 40 years ago on Friday to highlight the fight for land rights.
Protesters on Friday burnt an Australian flag at the entrance of the current Parliament House on Capital Hill as they called for Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia.
The flag burning followed a protest on Thursday by tent embassy supporters that sparked a security scare at a Canberra restaurant that ended up with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott being rushed away by security personnel.
“The tent embassy call for `sovereignty’ is little more than reverse-apartheid and is damaging to all Indigenous Australians,” Mr Andrews said.
But he also said Indigenous Australians had been let down by decades of unequal public policy.
“It is time we move beyond the failed policies of the past and treat all Australians as equals,” Mr Andrews said.
“It is time that the tent embassy is closed.”
The Menzies House campaign can be found at www.closethetentembassy.com.
AAP
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