Deborah Mailman, Damon Herriman and others have expressed their disgust at a video in which members of the Gold Coast youth branch of the Liberal National Party insulted Indigenous culture.
“He can go and get ‘tsk’,” Deborah Mailman told HuffPost at the AACTA Awards red carpet on Wednesday.
“Little dickhead.”
Young LNP leader Barclay McGain was suspended from the Gold Coast Young Liberals on Tuesday for a racially offensive video in which one of his fellow party mates insulted Indigenous culture.
The video shows McGain interviewing a young LNP volunteer at an event for school leavers on the Gold Coast. A giggling McGain quizzed the young man about the Australian anthem and the Australian flag.
“I’m fed up with having all of these sports stars stand out on our stages and not sing the national anthem,” the young man replied.
“They’re putting our Australian jumper on, they’re going to sing the anthem.
“We’ve got to stop celebrating a culture that couldn’t even invent the bloody wheel for god’s sake. We’ve got to start enjoying and living in Western Culture.”
The video was posted on the Gold Coast Young LNP’s Facebook page before it was deleted on Tuesday.
“I hope that’s not our future. That is horrifying,” said The Nightingale star Damon Herriman
“It’s extraordinary.”
Queensland LNP leader Deb Frecklington has also condemned the comments.
“I’ve said they were racist, I’ve actually said they were inappropriate, and I’ve said that I apologise for them,” she said.
McGain and two other young men involved in the video have yet to apologise.
The scandal comes as the spotlight shines on Indigenous history this week with films like The Nightingale winning multiple gongs at the AACTA Awards.
When talking about themes of racism and colonisation in the film, Australian actor Tim Minchin stressed the need for more education.
“Everyone should grow up with an understanding that there was the world’s most incredible, deep and continuous culture living here for 60, 000 years and just a beat ago we came and trashed it and that’s how it should be taught,” he told HuffPost.
“If someone leaves middle school not understanding that our culture was an invading culture, a violent, destructive and invading culture, then we’re fucking it up.”