Anti-racism protesters should be charged if they defy advice and march, says Scott Morrison

Australian Prime Minister said on Thursday thatBlack Lives Matter protesters should be charged if they defy advice and continue to march.

He accused them ofputting ''the whole track back to economic recovery at risk''and their actionsof delaying the easeof restrictions by a week while governments monitor signs of outbreaks.

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In an interview on 2GB on Thursday morning ahead of a national cabinet meeting on Friday, the prime minister said the weekend protests had interfered with the capacity of states to ease physical distancing rules, including allowing more people to attend funerals.

Echoing argumentsfrom the US president, Donald Trump, Morrison also alleged the protests against deaths in custody were being ''taken over by other much more politically driven leftwing agendas, which are seeking to take advantage of these opportunities to push their political causes.''

It was a ''fair point''to raise issues about ''people’s treatment in custody or things like that''but he believed the activism needed to be kept in perspective. Australia was ''a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in Australia.''

It was important to be ''honest about our history'', he said, but he neglected to mentionthe exploitation of South Pacific Islandersbrought to work on Queensland plantations, or the well-documented cases of Indigenous people being used for free labour in the pastoral industry and as household servants – a practice that began during colonial times and persisted well into the 20th century.

''We’ve got to acknowledge the positive and the negative,''he said. ''But, you know, I think we’ve also got to respect our history as well, and this is not a licence for people to just go nuts on this stuff.''

Morrison said given the public health risks, local activists needed to desist from further gatherings.

''I think they need to think carefully about that and again, I say don’t do it, and I’m glad that the police in New South Wales and the state government will take a strong approach on that,'' he said.

He said people defying that advice should be charged.