Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has been under serious pressure over the last 24 hours due to comments he made about the Capitol riots in Washington D.C.
The stand-in Australian leader said it was 'unfortunate' and also likened it to the Black Lives Matter protests that occurred in America throughout 2020.
Despite coming under fire for those statements, he's since double-downed and said 'all lives matter'.
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"I appreciate there are a lot of people out there who are being a bit bleeding heart about this, and who are confecting outrage, but they should know that those lives matter too. All lives matter."
The statement has seen a fierce outpouring of disgust on social media.
Amnesty International wrote on Twitter: "Acting Prime Minister - your continued ignorance about #BlackLivesMatter is harmful at worst, and completely tone deaf at best.
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"If you truly believe that 'All Lives Matter' - then revoke your insulting comments. Revoke them, and stand with black lives. Stand with them, and stand against the injustices they face in this country."
Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers added: "It beggars belief that the acting Prime Minister is drawing his equivalence.
"This is a stupendous and outrageous failure of leadership. When leaders all around the world are rightly condemning the violence in Washington, DC, we have members of the Australian government trying to legitimise it or draw false comparisons."
Acting Greens Leader Nick McKim also said: "The Black Lives Matter movement is a push-back against racist policing and politics. In contrast, the Capitol riots were because the far right didn't want to accept the results of a fair and democratic election.
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"Our warning to the Liberals is simple. Taking up Trump-style politics is poison to democracy. If this is the direction the Liberal Party is heading, it bodes terribly for the future of Australian politics."
Mr McCormack has been grilled over the comments he made yesterday (January 11) where he said the Capitol 'insurrection' was 'similar' to the BLM protests.
When he appeared on the ABC this morning (January 12), he was asked again how they were linked, considering one was an attempt to impede a democratic institution, Mr McCormack repeated his claim.
"Any form of violence, any form of protest that ends in death and destruction, is abhorred," the acting Prime Minister said.
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"Any form of protest, whether it's a protest over racial riots or indeed what we've seen on Capitol Hill in recent days, is condemned and is abhorred.
"It involves violence. It involves the destruction of property. It involves deaths of people, and any violence of that form is condemned."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Australia
