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26 January 2012: 'Amnesia Day'. WTF happened? People gathered in front o...
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26 January 2012: 'Amnesia Day'. WTF happened? People gathered in front of Old Parliament House to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The peaceful day was suddenly interrupted when someone announced that Tony Abbott was only meters away from the site. (It is important to know that, that very morning, Abbott had made a provocative statement to the press - expressing the opinion that the Embassy should be removed: a statement which, predictably, caused anger among the Embassy crowd). So, upon hearing that Abbott was nearby, a group of people rushed to confront the leader of the Opposition. Within minutes, the crowd had grown and surrounded the glass-walled restaurant, chanting/banging on the windows, disrupting the function (at which PM Julia Gillard also happened to be present). 10 minutes into this rather surreal scenario, Police and Security decided to launch the PM directly from the restaurant into her car - very nearly injuring her - and causing her to lose her shoe. (Commit the memory of that shoe to your minds, dear readers). This sudden event caused the crowd to lose control. Some people attempted to impede the car carrying Abbott & Gillard from leaving; whereupon police reacted with force and threatened the use of batons and pepper-spray, which very nearly escalated the situation. Fortunately, no injuries were incurred.
In the very first reports which came out of the scene news reporters for mainstream channels such as Ten exaggerated the violence of the crowd, depicting the scene as a "riot". Yet, no damage was done to the building; no-one attempted to touch the PM or Mr. Abbott. Whilst exaggerating the level of violence , several early reports failed to mention that the reason for this behaviour was not mere hooliganism, but rather Mr. Abbott's statement regarding the Embassy. By the time that the full picture was reported in later reports, headlines which depicted the PM being assaulted by a violent horde of savage natives and feral hippies had already gone around the world.
Whilst the crowd did not behave in the best way; no-one advocated violence and it was clear that no-one - including the PM or Mr. Abbott - felt physically threatened. The whole thing was turned into a spin story which has no-doubt damaged the image of the peaceful and diplomatic mission of the Aboriginal community and its supporters. Worst of all, it gave hundreds of rednecks - who were not present at the event - a perfect excuse to publicly vent their racist invectives against Aboriginal people all over the country. Embassies are about diplomacy, not violence but diplomacy.
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