(Image source: The Mirror)
BY KERRY LEARY
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY
Australia’s Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were in for quite a surprise after deciding to publicly celebrate Australia Day at an awards ceremony Thursday. About 200 aboriginal protesters surrounded the restaurant where the ceremony was being held.
Channel Nine News has more.
“In the middle of that wage, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott in a mad dash for the safety of a get-away car.”
Thursday was not only Australia Day, it was the fortieth anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy -- a permanent activists camp set up at the capitol to fight for Australian Aboriginal rights.
The Sun reports Opposition Leader Tony Abbott outraged protesters by suggesting the Embassy should be shut down. Here are his comments.
“I think a lot has changed for the better since then. I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian ... and I think it is probably time to move on from that.”
The protesters, set up next door to the Australia Day celebrations, decided to surround the building. Gillard and Abbott were trapped for half an hour before being escorted from the building by police.
“Racist! Racist! Racist! Shame on you! Shame on you!”
Both Gillard and Abbott were fine after the incident, but Gillard may have pulled some sort of Cinderella stunt- she lost a shoe in all of the chaos. Luckily, the protesters are happy to return it, according to an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We would like to invite and to extend an invitation to the Prime Minister of Australia to attend the new Aboriginal Parliament to kindly receive her lost shoe.”
Gillard hosted another Australia day function at her residence later in the day. And the National Post reports the Prime Minister was only upset about one thing.
“The only thing that angers me is that it distracted from such a wonderful event.”
The Tent Embassy activists push for Aboriginal control of sacred sites and mineral rights over Aboriginal lands.
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