Steve Price: Cowardly vandals will only strengthen support for Australia Day

The mindless idiots who creep around in the dark vandalising and destroying our history will only make ordinary Australians more determined not to be divided by race.

The mindless urban terrorism that saw the statue of Melbourne’s founder John Batman sawn in half this weekend needs to be a line in the sand for this state and this nation.

Victorians — indeed most Australians — have had a gutful of these after-dark cowards destroying our history in some lame attempt to make a point about colonialism.

Poll after poll in recent years show the majority of Australians support January 26 as Australia Day. The latest atrocity at Queen Victoria Market, the defacing of an Anzac statue in Parkville and the vandalising of a citizenship ceremony in Ringwood will only strengthen that support.

The idiots who crept around in the dark with their angle grinder felling Batman will just make ordinary Australians more determined not to be divided by race.

The idiots who crept around in the dark with their angle grinder felling Batman will just make ordinary Australians more determined not to be divided by race.

Premier Jacinta Allan and Lord Mayor Nick Reece must condemn the action of these gutless cowards. Picture: Brendan Beckett

This time last year it was Captain Cook in St Kilda and Queen Victoria’s statue was damaged in the gardens named after her. On Friday, Cook copped it in Sydney and for some mindless reason bronze busts of Australian PMs were attacked in Ballarat with Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd beheaded.

The morons involved in these terror attacks – and that’s what they are – have zero knowledge of history. Keating is one the most passionate political figures in support of reconciliation in history, Rudd led the sorry statement to Parliament and Cook has nothing to do with January 26.

The Premier, Jacinta Allan, and the Lord Mayor, Nicolas Reece, must not use weasel words after the John Batman statue disgrace. Both must condemn the action of these gutless cowards, then the Premier needs to stop her fence sitting over protest permits.

Batman sawn in half and an expected 30,000 strong protest march through Melbourne on a day when the world is watching the men’s grand slam final should be the final straw.

The idiots behind these attacks have no knowledge of history. Picture: Bev Noonan

Give the police the powers they need to ban a march like the one scheduled for Australia Day.

What excuse could you possibly have to allow two groups one called The Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance, the other a crowd calling itself Disrupt Wars free reign to ruin Australia Day for anyone thinking of visiting the CBD.

No-one needs to see radical former Green Senator Lidia Thorpe out there calling us all racists and making statements like she did this week – predictably – that brown and black people were “rising Up” and that “white” people were scared because we were becoming a minority in our own country.

A Captain Cook statue cops it in Sydney but these fools are wasting their time. Picture: Supplied

Thorpe and her radical left cohort have done more damage to the cause of Indigenous reconciliation than anyone.

The paint-chucking, statue-felling thugs creeping around in the middle of the night thinking cutting down the statue of a man credited with the founding of Melbourne seal the deal.

Right-thinking Australians who have great sympathy for the plight of disadvantaged Indigenous people have no time for a bunch of city dwelling brain-dead criminals too scared to show their faces in daylight.

Batman will be repaired as was Cook. You fools are wasting your time.