Amnesty International has called on Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack to immediately withdraw his “deeply offensive” comments comparing the recent Capitol riot to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
Hundreds of pro-Trump protesters swarmed the Capitol building on Thursday last week, as a joint session of Congress worked to certify the results of the 3 November election. The riot prompted the evacuation of politicians from the Senate floor, resulted in five deaths, and temporarily halted the democratic process.
Mr McCormack on Monday told ABC’s RN the riot at Capitol Hill was “unfortunate”, and “similar to those race riots that we saw around the country last year”, immediately sparking backlash online.
Appearing on ABC News on Tuesday, Mr McCormack – who is filling in for Scott Morrison while he is on leave – doubled down on his statement, explaining that “any form of violence, any form of protest that ends in death and destruction is abhorred”.
“I know this is very difficult for the United States as it goes through great change but any form of protest, whether it is a protest over racial rights or indeed what we have seen on Capitol Hill in recent days is condemned and abhorred,” he said.
The Black Lives Matter protests were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck in May last year.
Thousands of people around the world joined the mostly peaceful protests, which called for an end to police brutality and racism.
“To call the Black Lives Matter movement ‘race riots’ proves that the acting Prime Minister ignored the incredibly important message that it shared,” Amnesty International Indigenous Rights Lead, Nolan Hunter, said.
“Here, Australians are sick of Indigenous lives not mattering like white lives, Australians are sick of Indigenous people dying younger than non-Indigenous Australians, Australians are sick of Indigenous people being locked up.”
He said the comments “must be condemned in the strongest terms” and immediately withdrawn.
Many were also quick to criticise the comments on social media, including Professor Jacinta Elston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash University.
“It is appalling that our national leadership views the Australia BLM [Black Lives Matter] protests that were conducted in 2020 as ‘race riots’ when they were all peaceful protests to call out the ongoing injustice of Indigenous deaths in custody,” she wrote.
An Aboriginal Legal Service spokesperson also said it was disappointing to see the acting Prime Minister “mischaracterise our fight for justice as ‘race riots'”.
“Our demand that Black lives be valued and defended against state-sanctioned violence is in no way comparable to attempts to violently overthrow an election,” the wrote on Twitter.
Mr McCormack was previously criticised for falsely stating a Black Live Matter protest in Melbourne was partially responsible for Victoria’s second coronavirus wave during an episode of Q&A.
