black gst camp

On Saturday afternoon I was walking in St. Kilda and had a leaflet thrust in my hand. It was from that group calling itself BlackGST.

It featured a map of Australia dripping blood and the coastline was lined with skulls.

And it included headlines like “Genocide to end”. What genocide? Maybe they would have something to protest about if it said “Welfare payments to end”. Or “dole payments to be cut”.

But the issue is bigger than this.

It’s all part of a plan to protest against what they call the Stolenwealth Games. The Aboriginal rights demonstrators threatened to set up a protest camp in Kings Domain – about 600 metres from Government House where the Queen will be staying after opening the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.

Games Minister Justin Madden said last month that he would not tolerate the camp being set up. But it is there. And it gets worse.

Yesterday, on a flaming hot day the authorities declared a day of total fire bank.  So how come could the protesters light a fire at their illegal camp?  While police just stood by. One policeman even helped fuel the illegal fire by throwing gum leaves on it.

And the Park Rangers? They showed demonstrators where they could safely pitch their illegal tents. As I said last month: If you or I tried to take our sleeping bag and try to pitch a tent there we’d be arrested or frog-marched off the park precincts before we could get the second tent peg hammered in.

Everybody is pussy-footing around. Because the demonstrators are black. Even Prime Minister Howard ducked the issue when asked about it. His reply: " Look, it’s a free country”.

On that basis we could start illegal camp cities anywhere. We could all ignore the fire restrictions.

The camp’s so-called “ fire keeper” had the temerity to suggest that the Queen and Premier Bracks should visit the protesters and  “ we’re inviting them because we want them to heal themselves and to become part of Aboriginal Australia.

Yeah sure. Maybe we should all sign up. Then we could all get a slice of the 1.7 billion dollars of taxpayers money spent on aboriginal affairs and health and welfare every year.

And finally, How many squatters in Kings Domain are collecting some sort of welfare – or are on the dole?

I thought about that when I heard about plans by a group of indigenous Australians to try to disrupt the Commonwealth Games and embarrass both the state and federal governments with a protest camp in a No Go zone.

And it got me thinking about a caller I had on the programme the other day who told me the plight of her ailing mother who lives in Parkville – near the Games village.  Street after street has been listed as ‘parking free’ for security reasons.

That means this elderly woman, through no fault of her own, can’t have her Meals on Wheels vehicle park outside her house, nor her doctor when he visits, for fear of being towed away.

If she were aboriginal I guess things might be different. The protesters call themselves, for some obscure reason, the Black GST. And they have dubbed the big sporting event the Stolenwealth Games.

They have invited thousands of protesters to join their protest camp in King’s Domain. That’s what makes it interesting.

King’s Domain is one of the areas of Melbourne gazetted as a “Games Management Zone”.  As such – under the Commonwealth Games Arrangements Act” it includes special restrictions. There are bans on protesting, creating a disturbance, and other activities. People who breach those restrictions can be arrested.

You wonder about the arrogance of these people. Apparently the Black GST was holding talks with the State Government  about a protest site but a spokesman said the talks broke down when the Government failed to meet a deadline set by the protesters.

Since when does of a rabble of protesters set the rules?

And listen to this: A Black GST  spokesman said the “sacred flame” that has burned for years in the Canberra tent embassy near Parliament House  would be carried to Melbourne a week before the Games and its arrival would mark the opening of the protest camp.

Sacred Flame? It’s from a camp fire that has been burning in the rubbish dump they call the Aboriginal Embassy. And when it comes to protesting. Do they ever stop and think that no group of Australians have had as much money poured at their problems. More than a billion dollars a year for thirty years.

Some of that money – millions of dollars – have been ripped off  by Aboriginal leaders who have been paid to represent them. Maybe that’s where their protests should be aimed. Not at a sporting competition.

Monday, March 13, 2006 

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2006