Greens member calls for action on First Nations justice amid Queen Victoria statue controversy

Geelong’s mayor has revealed the next steps after a statue of Queen Victoria was taken down by vandals in a park.

The future of a statue of Queen Victoria that was toppled by vandals last week is unclear, as police continue to probe the incident.

Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan said council’s first action was to secure the statue.

“We will now be working with the appropriate conservators and specialists to determine what works are required and associated costs and timelines,” Mr Sullivan said.

“Repairing a statue of this type with significant damage of this nature is a delicate and time consuming process.

“While investigations continue we can’t make further comments about the incident or proposed further actions.”

The Eastern Park statue, placed there in 1912, was toppled and defaced with graffiti last week, in what was a second attack on the monument in as many weeks.

Greens member for Western Victoria Sarah Mansfield said more and more Victorians were reckoning with the country’s history.

“For more than a year the Yoorrook Justice Commission has told the painful but important truth of our past, and the impact Australia’s racist, colonial history has had on First Nations people,” Dr Mansfield said.

Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan. Picture: Alan Barber

“It has also told of our present, and how many of the harms of the colonisation of this land remain.

“We see them in the laws and policies that cause deaths in custody, children still being taken from families, and in the trauma and impoverishment of many First Nations people.

“It’s important we continue to listen to these truths and push our governments for action on First Nations justice.”

Footage posted to Instagram showed the statue being pulled to the ground after being roped to a car by unknown people in the cover of darkness.

The video was shared by Climate Resistance Youth Movement, which stated on its Instagram page that it received the footage from an anonymous source.

Police said investigations remained ongoing.

It comes after Geelong’s Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken said he believed the statue be restored and reinstated.

“I believe we should celebrate its restoration to send a clear message,” Mr Aitken said on the weekend.

“The Australia I wish to be a member of is a country built on respect and tolerance for all.”

Queen Victoria statue Geelong vandalism video screenshot. Picture: Instagram

Restore and celebrate queen’s statue, says Deputy Mayor

The restoration of the Queen Victoria statue pulled down by vandals in Geelong last week should be a celebrated event to send a clear message about respect and tolerance, Geelong’s Deputy Mayor says.

The Eastern Park statue, placed there in 1912, was toppled and defaced with graffiti last week, in what was a second attack on the monument.

In a video posted to Instagram, footage shows the statue being pulled to the ground after being roped to a car.

The video was shared by Civil Resistance Youth Movement, which stated on its Instagram page that it received the footage from an anonymous source.

Geelong’s Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken said no destruction of public property was justifiable.

“It is a reflection of the current sad state of society that individuals whose views that do not reflect the broader community believe illegal acts of destruction are justifiable,” Mr Aitken said.

“The Australia I wish to be a member of is a country built on respect and tolerance for all. This behaviour just divides and causes more conflict in our community.

“The statue should not only be restored and reinstated, but I believe we should celebrate its restoration to send a clear message,” he said.

Mr Aitken’s comments come after Corio MP and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said monuments honouring Australia’s colonial past should be respected.

Mr Marles said at a press conference in Corio on Friday he wasn’t aware the statue had been attacked again, but called for respect for Australia’s history.

“It’s really important that we tell our whole history and are sensitive that as we think about our history, we are thinking about the place that Indigenous Australians as the oldest continuous culture in the world have had in our history,” Mr Marles said.

“Our history didn’t begin in 1788 and certainly in our history extends well beyond that.”

But Mr Marles said the statues such as of Queen Victoria also reflected a more recent part of Australia’s history.

“I can understand why people have a fondness about all those monuments around town around knowing where they are, giving you a sense of what those spaces are,” he said.

“And I think all that needs to be respected.”

Geelong, Queen Victoria statue, Richard Marles, canva

There have mixed reactions online to vandalism, with some describing the perpetrators as “scumbags” and the removal of the statue as an “anti-white attack”.

The Australian Monarchist League said the actions were committed by “anti-colonial, cancel culture vandals” and were an “indictment on modern society”.

“Those who seem to be upset by symbols of modern Australia’s British heritage have recourse to petition local councils for their removal.

“That is the democratic way under our current system of governance,” they said.

On its Instagram post, the Civil Resistance Youth Movement said the “legacy of the genocidal figures will be remembered as one of shame”.

“There shall be no statues or monuments to the thieves and murderers who forced themselves into this story of this land.”

Police are continuing to investigate the attack.

Originally published as Greens member calls for action on First Nations justice amid Queen Victoria statue controversy