Rita Panahi: Kings Domain is for all Victorians, not radical activists

Victorians resoundingly voted against the type of racial division that the radical activists camped out in Kings Domain are pushing for.

Kings Domain is for all Victorians, always was, always will be.

Or it should be unless we are betrayed by milquetoast politicians desperate to appease the unappeasable.

Authorities must ensure that radical Indigenous activists are not allowed to act with impunity in setting up a camp in an effort to force the City of Melbourne and the state government to meet their frankly absurd demands.

Victoria Police must remove the activists led by Robbie Thorpe, uncle of Senator Lidia Thorpe, as they would any other group.

How long do you think you or your family would last if you pitched a tent and started a fire in the middle of the Botanic Gardens or Royal Park?

The activists are demanding Kings Domain be renamed and handed to the Indigenous community with Mr Thorpe vowing to remain in the park until his demands are met.

“We want to call it Camp Sovereignty, or its proper name, Yalukit Willam,” Mr Thorpe said.

“We’re the proper custodians … the land needs us and we need our land.

“If we don’t win here, we got nothing to go to.

“Where do you go for a dose of Aboriginal culture close to the CBD?”

Well, there are plenty of options, Mr Thorpe, including the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum, thanks to the largesse of Victorian taxpayers.

The activists are demanding Kings Domain be renamed and handed to the Indigenous community. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

They’re the same taxpayers activists claim are on stolen, “unceded” land. The same Victorians who voted against further racial division in rejecting the Voice.

Australia voted in October and the verdict was emphatic.

Every single state and territory, with the exception of the out-of-touch bureaucratic class that makes up the ACT, voted against the racial division and privilege the Voice represented.

Australians do not want a country where your ethnicity determines your rights and entitlements.

Last week protesters in NSW, including a number of Indigenous Australians, called on the NSW government to remove climbing bans and to properly investigate claims over Mt Warning, after a 2023 report claimed the mountain played a sacred and spiritual role in local Indigenous culture.

In that state alone there are reportedly more than 40,000 outstanding Aboriginal land claims including for prime waterside land.

It would be wrong to assume that the action taken by Mr Thorpe and other radicals is supported by all Indigenous Australians.

But too often that is the simplistic view offered by the media who uncritically accept and regurgitate whatever tripe the activist class feeds them; whether it’s mangling the English language to avoid using gendered pronouns or adopting political terms like “First Nations”.

Robbie Thorpe, uncle of Senator Lidia Thorpe, is leading the protest. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Our institutions have been corrupted by the excesses of far Left ideology with its poisonous oppressor and oppressed narrative.

It is evident in academia, government bodies, the bulk of the media and increasingly the corporate world.

To see the likes of Woolworths, Tennis Australia and AFL clubs continue to push divisive racial politics on Australia Day was disappointing but not surprising.

The same sporting bodies, corporates and celebs who were on the wrong side of history have refused to accept the referendum result.

Instead they are doubling down with lies, half-truths and emotional blackmail. There needs to be a cost associated with this activism, the sort of cost Bud Light and more recently Rip Curl have paid for daft politicking on trans issues.

Corporates are free to opine on contentious social and political issues but the consumer is also free to make purchasing decisions in response to that activism.

And, who can blame consumers for not wanting to hand over their hard-earned to companies that hate their values.

There are plenty of other beers and surf brands that’ll happily take your money without pushing their toxic ideology down your throat.