Been here 10 minutes and reckons our PM needs to be deported
Probably not all that wrong - but that's another story
Who does this wombat think he is?
Dutton and Turnbull need to be deported, says African leader
Richard Deng from the South Sudanese Community Association of Victoria. Picture: Mark Wilson
RICHARD FERGUSON
The Australian
12:00AM February 5, 2018
A major figure in Melbourne’s South Sudanese community promised political retribution yesterday against the Liberal Party for its handing of this summer’s African youth crime crisis.
South Sudanese Community Association spokesman Richard Deng has been the public face of Melbourne’s African community leaders during a month dominated by coverage of robberies, bashing and public brawls allegedly caused by African youth violence.
Mr Deng told a crowd outside Victoria’s State Library yesterday he would mobilise against politicians he said were playing up the threat of youth crime, including Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
“Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull, you need to be deported,” he said at the No Racism: Stop Criminalising Our African Communities rally.
“We are all Australians ... if you do not stop what are you doing, we are going to send you back to where you come from.”
Mr Deng told The Australian he would continue to “reply” to the Prime Minister and Mr Dutton if they continued to campaign on youth-crime issues but would not say whether he was prepared to campaign formally against the Liberals at the next state and federal elections.
“They are playing political games and it is not right ... we were not prepared for what they said over the summer,” he said.
“We have to defend ourselves.”
The rally of several hundred anti-racism and left-wing activists did not compare in size to the reportedly 60,000-strong march against Australia Day last month.
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, various trade unionists and several young activists spoke at the rally, which travelled to the Victorian Liberal Party’s headquarters in Bourke Street.
A few hours later, a bigger gathering took place at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral where Archbishop Philip Freier led a “healing service” for Melbourne’s South Sudanese community.
Archbishop Freier attacked politicians and the media on Thursday for “exaggerating” the youth-crime crisis but his sermon yesterday was more focused on uniting the community and included prayers for victims of youth violence. He said as the victim of an armed robbery, he knew “very well how deep the emotional scars can be after such a traumatic experience”.
Victoria Police deputy commissioner Andrew Crisp, who said early last month there was not a gang problem, also spoke at the service and said police did not want to lock up young people.
“We don’t shy away from that commitment to investigating crime and arresting those responsible ... but we want to work with churches ... we don’t want to lock people up,” he said.
“We especially don’t want to lock young people up.”
Anglican charity The Brotherhood of St Laurence has spent $10,000 on a social media campaign to combat racism towards African youth.
