I am the secretary of UnionsACT, an organisation representing 24 unions and 33,000 union members in the ACT. In an average week it is my role to deal with many different industrial and community related issues. In the week since the events of January 26 I have dealt with one unfair dismissal, two redundancies, a bullying and harassment matter and safety breaches in several ACT workplaces. This is normal fare for most union officials. Unions represent nearly two million workers in Australia and the efforts of those workers and unions in turn serve to improve the working conditions enjoyed by millions of other workers, including those who choose not to be a member of a union. We help to improve the lives of working people every day in a variety of ways - that is why I choose to work in the union movement. Because we have broad connections throughout our community we are often a link between government, police, social movements and ordinary workers.
My involvement with the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal tent embassy goes back many years and is a continuation of a relationship that was developed 40 years ago between the secretaries of the Trades and Labour Council of the ACT and the Aboriginal community. The support we have offered the embassy at past events has included sourcing toilets, waste management, liaison with police and the National Capital Authority and the ACT government. We try to ensure that the protocols of the right to protest are adhered to by any groups protesting in the parliamentary and diplomatic zones with whom we are associated. We work closely with the AFP, as I did on this occasion. In an average year I organise at least 30 rallies, pickets, or small demonstrations, where workers or other people can express their views on a range of issues. In six years of doing so, nobody has been injured or arrested. My actions on January 26 were neither criminal nor illegal, and I certainly would not commit or encourage criminal or illegal behaviour at any public event held in Canberra.
Following the events of January 26 I called the office of the ACT Indigenous Affairs Minister, Chris Bourke, and the AFP to discuss the issues. I invited the AFP to visit my office on January 27 so that I could debrief and discuss what had occurred. During that conversation I got a call from the embassy indicating that a march was about to leave to go to Parliament House and that no police were present to ensure safe passage across Commonwealth Avenue. Because I have a working relationship with the AFP, we were able to arrange a group of officers to be sent to provide protection and safe passage to that march.
The incident at The Lobby on Australia Day lasted little more than 30 minutes, and to describe it as a ''riot'' is a complete overreaction and distortion of the facts. It was not violent or dangerous. The national media were immersed in the crowd and appeared calm and safe. There have been no police charges filed or arrests made.
My staff and I took our own footage of the events on Australia Day. Upon reviewing that footage, and the footage available in the media and on YouTube, I am convinced that at no time was anyone in mortal danger. In fact, the crowd immediately parted to peacefully allow police access to the doors and windows of The Lobby.
There are many questions to be asked about the events of January 26, 2012, not least of which about the role of risk assessment and the decision to hold the event on that day in that location. The important question to ask though, is why do our media and our leaders insist on misrepresenting this situation as a ''riot'', when on clear view of the footage available, and from having been there myself, it was a disgruntled group of Australians, exercising a legitimate right to protest, in a peaceful and compliant way?
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