A group of Aboriginal protesters hit the headlines again on Friday after they set fire to the Australian flag outside the country's Parliament in Canberra.
A video captured showed protesters outside Parliament setting light to the flag and spitting on it while chanting, 'Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.'
The protest came a day after riot police were called to form a human shield around Prime Minister Julia Gillard and escort her out of a Canberra restaurant after hundreds of angry protesters surrounded the building.
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| All in the line of duty: A minder hauls Gillard from the danger zone of Aboriginal protesters |
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| Statement: Aboriginal protesters from the tent embassy burn the Australian flag outside Parliament House in Canberra on Friday |
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| Condemn: Warren Mundine, a respected Aboriginal leader, denounced the actions of the protesters, saying 'If you look at (Abbott's) words, they're pretty harmless and they don't even mention anything about moving the Tent Embassy' |
The fall out continued on Friday with authorities and indigenous-rights protesters blamed each other today for the heated clash.
Ms Gillard stumbled in Thursday's fray and lost a shoe, which protesters scooped up after the rowdy demonstration in the capital Canberra.
Aboriginal-rights supporters had surrounded a restaurant and banged on its windows while Ms Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside at an award ceremony to mark Australia Day.
However, in an embarrassment for the Prime Minister, Tony Hodges, one of her media advisers was forced to resign on Friday after it emerged he had tipped off someone about Mr Abbott's presence and comments at the function and that person had then informed the protesters.
Ms Gillard's spokesman said the staff member had not encouraged violence but the tip-off was 'an error of judgment.'
Michael Outram, national manager of protection for the Australian Federal Police, said police may file charges against some of the protesters. Ms Gillard said on Friday that she was fine, but slammed the activists' actions.
'I've got no troubles at all with peaceful protests. ... What I utterly condemn is when protests turn violent the way we saw the violence yesterday, and particularly to disrupt an event which was to honour some extraordinary Australians,' she said.
Protest leaders denied doing anything wrong, accused the police of manhandling protesters and said they planned to lodge a complaint against the officers involved.
'The Australian Federal Police came at us with force and we did not retaliate with force,' protest spokeswoman Selina Daveys-Newry told reporters. 'We see straight through that little puppet play.'
Friday's protest showed about 200 indigenous-rights supporters marched on the nation's Parliament House, burning an Australian flag in front of a wall of police and carrying signs with messages such as 'All cops are bastards'.
No one was hurt and the protesters left minutes later.
The restaurant where Thursday's clash occurred is close to the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, where the protesters had demonstrated peacefully earlier in the day.
That long-standing, ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters is a centre point of protests against Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on January 26, 1788.
Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners. Mr Outram defended the way Thursday's incident had been handled, saying police had no idea the protest -- which had been peaceful for much of the day - would turn aggressive.
'We had no information or reason to suspect there was going to be any problem,' Mr Outram told reporters in Canberra.
The protests appear to have been aimed primarily at opposition leader Tony Abbott, who was also in the building when some 200 demonstrators began banging on its windows, shouting 'shame' and 'racist'.
Mr Abbott had angered activists earlier in the day by saying it was time the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy, which celebrated its 40th anniversary yesterday, 'moved on'.
Mr Abbott said on Friday that his comment had been misinterpreted, and that he never meant to imply the embassy should be torn down.
Warren Mundine, a respected Aboriginal leader, denounced the actions of the protesters, saying they had overreacted.
'They are a fringe, radical group -- they're not the mainstream of indigenous Australians,' Mr Mundine said. 'If you look at (Abbott's) words, they're pretty harmless and they don't even mention anything about moving the Tent Embassy.'
IT DOESN'T BOTHER ME I'VE GOT LOTS OF PAIRS OF SHOES!
A shoe advertised as the one Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard lost when she was bundled to a car by her bodyguards has been pulled off eBay and handed to a security guard at Parliament House by a member of the Aboriginal tent embassy.
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| If the shoes fits... Gwenda Stanley tries on the shoe Julia Gillard's lost in the crush at the restaurant on Friday - before it was returned to the PM |
The navy-blue suede wedge shoe came off Gillard's foot on Thursday in Canberra as she fled angry Aboriginal rights protesters
The online auction website posted a listing for what was purportedly the missing shoe with a starting price of Aus $148 (£100).
'Please bear in mind also this is a single shoe, not a pair, so it would be difficult to walk in, unless you're the PM,' the listing stated, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
eBay took it down amid concern it was a hoax and because sellers can only list items they own or the owner has given permission to sell.
Ms Gillard did not seem to care. 'It really doesn't worry me,' she said with a grin. 'I'm in a fortunate situation where I'm a woman with a few pairs of shoes.
© Daily Mail, London
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