Andrew Bolt: Branding Australia as ‘racist’ has become an industry

First it was the death of an Indigenous boy, then an attack on two Muslim women at the shops. Before a word of evidence was given in court, both incidents were promoted by activists as symbols of Australia’s supposed racism.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has assumed racist or anti-Semitic motives are behind some recent incidents. Picture: NewsWire

We have organisations whose business these days seems to be to trash Australia at the slightest excuse. That’s shown by two cases now before the courts.

One is the trial of four people for the alleged murder of Cassius Turvey, an Aboriginal 15-year-old bashed to death in 2022.

The other is the arrest of a mentally ill woman for the alleged assault two weeks ago of two Muslim women in a Melbourne shopping centre.

Let me be clear: I make no comment on guilt or innocence in either case.

That’s for courts to decide.

My concern is that both incidents were promoted by activist organisations as symbols of Australia’s supposed racism before a word of evidence was given in court.

Take the most recent case.

Cassius Turvey, 15, died after an alleged vicious beating in October 2022. Picture: supplied

Two Muslim women said they’d been attacked by a stranger, a woman who hit one in the face and tried to choke the other by grabbing her hijab.

This nasty incident was immediately seized upon as an example of Australia’s supposed Islamophobia.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils – which has not condemned the slaughter of 1200 Jews on October 7 – denounced the attack as “part of an increasing pattern of hostility” to Muslims.

The Albanese government’s Islamophobia envoy, Aftab Malik, demanded “more resources to ensure Muslim people feel safe”, and Test cricketer Usman Khawaja, a Muslim, cried: “Where is the justice? ... Rather than have an exclusive anti-Semitic summit how about we stop picking sides and include Islamophobia?”

A 31-year-old Pascoe Vale woman was arrested after allegedly assaulting two hijab-wearing women at an Epping shopping centre.

Julian Hill, the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, called the alleged attacks “another unacceptable example of the rise of Islamophobic incidents and attitudes”, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese assumed a motive: “Anyone who engages in this kind of racist, criminal behaviour should face the full force of the law”.

Maybe the attacker of the Muslim women is indeed racist.

In fact, police will allege the 31-year-old they have charged had attacked the two women because of their head coverings.

That said, the court may consider some complications.

The charged woman, Suzan Gonulalan, has a Turkish surname. Her lawyer told the magistrate she’d suffered severe brain injuries from a car crash, had a psychotic disorder consistent with schizophrenia and had not been taking her medication.

The court was told she was also homeless, unemployed, sometimes childlike and was out on four sets of bail.

Usman Khawaja has been vocal about his feelings on the matter. Picture: Getty Images

I’m not sure she’s the kind of accused people had in mind when calling the attacks on the Muslim women a symptom of Australia’s Islamophobia.

Then there’s the tragic case of Cassius Turvey, an apparently kind and bright boy who a prosecutor alleges in a trial now being held was killed in “a vengeful act of vigilante violence” after a car was damaged, apparently by others.

His death had also been seized upon as an example of Australia’s supposed racism.

Human rights lawyer Hannah McGlade, of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, told Britain’s BBC no white boy would have been killed like that: “It’s an absolute blight on the nation.”

Megan Krakouer, of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, said “racism and discrimination is entrenched” in our laws, the Uniting Church demanded “racial justice”, and the Australian Human Rights Commission added Cassius’s death to the “fundamental injustices” it blamed on “colonisation and a history of discriminatory laws and policies”.

Presenter Tony Armstrong previously said the nation was now seeing what “it’s like to be a blackfella”. Picture: Getty Images

On television, presenter Tony Armstrong said we’d now “seen what it’s like to be a blackfella”, and Narelda Jacobs cried as she said “we will be seeing people turning out in record numbers across Australia” in response to this “alleged racism”.

Indeed, more than 40 anti-racist protests were staged, many by socialist groups, as Anthony Albanese again declared he knew the perpetrators’ motive: “This attack, that is clearly racially motivated, just breaks your heart. We are a better country than that.”

At the opening of the trial of Cassius’s alleged killers, a prosecutor said there was “not one shred of evidence” this killing was racially motivated.

One of the defendants’ lawyers agreed the case had nothing to do with race or the colour of anyone’s skin, and said anyone who claimed the opposite was “misinformed, ill-advised and misguided”.

I’d suggest another factor.

We now have organisations whose existence and funding depends on leaping to conclusions that we’re racist.

Slandering Australia has become an industry.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Branding Australia as ‘racist’ has become an industry