Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, LNP senator from Queensland Amanda Stoker said that the Queensland Premier was 'the knee on the throat of businesses of Queensland, stopping them from breathing'. She subsequently gave what I would call a Clayton's apology—the very disingenuous apology you have when you're not having an apology. She said, 'It was just a phrase that was around at the time.' Well, we know why the phrase was around at the time, and so does she. We know that she is well aware of the Black Lives Matter protests because she went on Sky and complained about those same protests. Also, we happen to know that she hasn't been living under a rock. It is a matter of common knowledge that the Black Lives Matter protests, which have been happening internationally, were in part spurred on by the death of someone in those circumstances. The reason the phrase has been repeated is that there has been an outpouring of grief, heartbreak and fury across the world in relation to the death of black people. Here at home we've seen the Black Lives Matter protests that are protesting Australia's shame about black deaths in custody in Australia and about the over-incarceration of Indigenous people in Australia. To use this phrase for cheap political points is a matter of great shame.