Statues vandalised in Sydney’s Hyde Park
Three statues in Sydney’s Hyde Park — including one of Captain Cook — have been attacked by vandals following days of fierce public debate about whether they should be changed.
Police are investigating “a number of incidents of malicious damage” in the park, believed to have happened between 2am and 3am on Saturday.
“Three crime scenes have been established throughout the park and inquiries are continuing,” a spokeswoman said.
The words “change the date” and “no pride in genocide” were spray-painted on the Captain Cook statue, with similar words scrawled on that of Lachlan Macquarie. The graffiti attack comes just days after indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant called for the inscription on the Cook statue — that he discovered the territory in 1770 — to be changed.
Statues vandalised in Sydney’s Hyde Park
The prime minister said the vast majority of Australians would share his horror at the thought of “rewriting history” by editing the inscriptions on statues.
“All of those statues, all of those monuments, are part of our history and we should respect them and preserve them,” he told Neil Mitchell on 3AW radio.
