#tenterfield

So-called Australia: Office of Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce paint-bombed

On January 30th, 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s Tenterfield office in so-called “Australia” was paintbombed in solidarity with First Nations struggles.

This action was spurred by Joyce’s disgusting and ignorant comments around Invasion Day 2017, when the minister referred to protesters as “miserable gutted people” and further stated “I wish they would crawl under a rock and hide for a little bit.”

Barnaby Joyce is a white man who was born on unceded land in so-called Tamworth in 1967. He is in the top three of politician’s spending, with taxpayer money directed by his hand to projects such as: chartering a $4, 000 helicopter ride to avoid a 4 hour drive from his hometown (or 40 min drive from his Tenterfield office) on two occasions, and spending $670, 897 to set up his two regional offices (more expensive than any fit-out recorded since 2010). He is empowered by a government founded on genocide, strengthened by the destructive and vicious machine of capitalism and upheld by white-washing nationalism that seeps into and out of our communities, creating false comfort and pride through historical amnesia.

This small symbolic action was taken because we reject dialogue with the monsters behind sleek government walls who know nothing of the lives of those they attempt to govern, seeing only those things which might obtain them more power and strengthen the system that sustains their positions. We want to encourage people to see beyond the frosted glass that shields these ignorant, entitled criminals; to see the outrage against them, to see the disrespect they deserve. We threw red paint to symbolise the blood of those First Nations people murdered by the Australian state over 229 years of invasion and occupation, and the blood pumping through the veins of those survivors, those warriors who live and breathe today. Those who will give birth to new generations, who will always be rooted in this land and connected to their ancestors and to the pain of the dispossession, murder and devastation inflicted on their people and their land for centuries by the Australian state.

It’s clear to us that Barnaby Joyce is nothing but a bitter man with pockets full of money and a life deprived of culture and meaning. His position of power must give him warmth at night and the false impression of widespread respect. This small action was a simple one to chip away at his illusions, to break down his power and to show him that we are here, and we are not going away.