Dumping of Coon cheese ‘insult to history’, says Robbie Katter

Canadian dairy company Saputo’s decision to retire cheese brand Coon has come under fire from a North Queensland politician, who claims it will do nothing to advance the interests of Indigenous Australians.

Canadian dairy company Saputo’s decision to retire cheese brand Coon has come under fire from a North Queensland politician, who claims it will do nothing to advance the interests of Indigenous Australians.

Katter’s Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter said the loss of the cheese brand, named after founder Edward William Coon, was virtue-signalling at its most grotesque.

He said the decision, which disregards the true origins of the name, was an insult to history and to those working on solutions to the real struggles facing Indigenous Australians in 2020.

Saputo has dumped the Coon brand of cheese. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Multinational conglomerate Saputo said in a letter to Indigenous activist and businessman Dr Stephen Hagan – who has lobbied for more than 20 years to change the name of the cheese – the company had “decided to retire the Coon brand name”.

Mr Katter, whose electorate of Traeger has an Indigenous population of more than 20 per cent, said the challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders today were complex but had nothing to do with cheese.

Mr Katter wrote a letter to Saputo president, Richard Wallace, to highlight the Coon family had no racist origins.

Traeger MP Robbie Katter said the loss of the cheese brand, named after founder Edward William Coon, was virtue-signalling at its most grotesque. Picture: Evan Morgan

“You know as well as I do that the name Coon cheese does not, and never has, had anything to do with racism,” he wrote.

“The growing tendency in the corporate world to buckle to the current trend in which truth has become an optional extra and history ignored or used as just another propaganda tool does not serve the interests of society well.

“This ‘political correctness’ makes more difficult the task of those who care about the plight of Australia’s First Nation people and work to help them to improve their circumstances.

“If Saputo were genuinely concerned about the pain and suffering which Australia’s First Nation people experience, it would not take the easy option and trash history for the sake of a cheap headline.”

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Last month the KAP released a five-point policy addressing the quality of life, employment and health outcome issues for Queensland’s Indigenous people.

It included addressing title deed issues in Aboriginal communities, breaking down barriers for Indigenous people accessing work due to Blue Card system overreach, enacting relocation sentencing, moving to control the cost of groceries in Indigenous communities wwhere goods are often double the cost and analysing the state’s Alcohol Management Plans.

Originally published as Dumping of Coon cheese ‘insult to history’, says Robbie Katter