Did you hear about the group of armed far-right protesters who set fire to Australia’s old Parliament House, now the Museum of Australian Democracy?
Of course you didn’t — because it didn’t happen. Rest assured, though, if it had, the screeching from the mainstream media would be deafening. After all, they’re still yammering about the January 6 “insurrection” in Washington.
But the Museum of Australian Democracy, the building that housed Australia’s Parliament for over 60 years, through the Depression and WWII to the Whitlam Dismissal, was attacked and set afire by protesters carrying spears and clubs just two weeks ago. But the violent arsonists were Aboriginal, so the mainstream media Memory-Holed the whole business within days.
What they can’t Memory-Hole, they’re actively lying about.
On December 30, protesters set fire to Old Parliament House. They shouted about Indigenous rights and colonisation, clashed with police and flew the Aboriginal flag. They were heard yelling “let it burn” as the fire took hold. In the immediate aftermath, officials questioned whether the fire was deliberately lit, or just a smoking ceremony gone wrong. Now members of the media are questioning whether the protesters were motivated by Aboriginal rights or were duped by the alt-right.
The green-left have pivoted from celebration to denial. Exhibit A is unelected “Indigenous” Greens senator, the whiter-than-white Lydia Thorpe. At the time of the attack, Thorpe celebrated that “the colonial system is burning down. Happy New Year everyone”. But she’s since deleted that tweet, and now claims that the arsonists were “anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists”.
Aboriginal-owned media company IndigenousX ran with the theme that protesters involved in the attack on Old Parliament House were motivated by the alt-right rather than Aboriginal concerns.
These are obvious lies, of course, and they’re far from the first about the affair. At first, Aboriginal apologists and left media like the ABC tried to claim that the fire was “accidental”, a “smoking ceremony” that had been “accelerated” by a policewoman’s capsicum spray. The lie was self-evidently absurd, especially when security video showed protesters deliberately smearing the lenses of cameras before the fire was lit — while separate footage showed protesters deliberately stoking the fire against the doors, to chants of “Burn it down”. Footage also shows protesters, many carrying spears and clubs, fighting with emergency services as they try to reach the blaze.
Faced with such undeniable evidence, the left-media have seized on the description of one of the arrestees as a “sovereign citizen” type, to try and blame the attack on the “alt-right”. But there is more than one “sovereignty” movement in Australia — and they’re far from “right-wing”.
They include Indigenous man David Cole, who is part of the Original Sovereign Tribal Federation. The OSTF was founded by a non-Indigenous man who was inspired by the ideas of an American who claimed to be the king of Hawaii. But Bruce Shillingsworth leads the new protest group, according to Latimore, and his involvement should raise questions about its characterisation as alt-right.
Shillingsworth is an Indigenous and environmental activist. In a 2019 video posted on the Socialist Alliance Facebook page, ”Uncle Bruce Shillingsworth” is shown leading a chant with a comrade at a climate protest. He is described as a “Socialist Alliance militant” by the group.
The Australian
Shillingworth has also been quoted approvingly by far-left rag Green Left Weekly.
This isn’t the first violence from left-wing protesters in Canberra. In 2012, then-PM Julia Gillard had to be rushed to safety as spear-carrying Aboriginal protesters attacked a Canberra restaurant. The left-media lied shamefully then, too: first trying to blame the attack on then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, and then lying that there was “no threat” and that the violence was justified, anyway.
Then there was the infamous invasion of the new Parliament House by left-wing protesters who smashed the doors and trashed the building’s lobby. The media have conveniently forgotten that one, too.
Having lied about the latest left-wing violence, the ABC has now similarly consigned it to the Memory Hole. Instead, its flagship current affairs programs have reverted to pearl-clutching and lying about events on the other side of the world, a year ago.
On Radio National Breakfast last Thursday, presenter Hamish Macdonald interviewed Mick Mulvaney (a former chief-of-staff to president Donald J. Trump). His introduction was as follows: “US President Joe Biden will today mark the one year anniversary of a deadly riot at the US Capitol. The supporters of Donald J. Trump stormed the building and battled police in an effort to stop the transition of power after the 2020 election. Five people were killed in the melee that followed.”
The Australian
These people are shameless.
