Many Australians would think the shocking political violence seen at the US Capitol in Washington DC could never happen here.
But witnesses who saw blood spilled when unionist rioters stormed Parliament House, Canberra, almost a quarter of a century ago beg to differ.
Ben Fordham, now 2GB’s Breakfast host, remembers it was his first day as a cub reporter at Radio 2UE’s Canberra bureau.
It was August 19, 1996 and he was sent down to cover a protest by the Australian Council of Trade Unions against John Howard’s industrial relations laws.
It started peacefully enough, with 25,000 demonstrators on the promenade … but the broadcaster will never forget the shameful scenes that unfolded next.
‘It was absolutely chaotic,’ he said.
‘I can still remember seeing a young female police officer being helped away by a colleague, blood pouring out.’
The 1996 Parliament House riot turned bloody (above, in the Marble Foyer). But it has mostly been forgotten about in modern history
Some 25,000 demonstrators swarmed Parliament House, Canberra, to protest against Prime Minister John Howard’s industrial relations laws. It started peacefully but ended with a breakaway group of rioters smashing into the parliamentary gift shop
A breakaway group – many who had reportedly fuelled up on booze at a barbeque – made a run for the front doors of the seat of Australian democracy.
They tried to smash their way in, screaming ‘our house, let us in’. Soon after, rioters managed to break in via a separate entrance: the parliamentary gift shop.
Dozens stormed inside and mayhem ensued – with several ransacking the gift shop in the process, pilfering teaspoons and tea towels.
‘I was standing in the gift shop looking at people filling their bags, pockets and bras with whatever they could find,’ Fordham recalled.
A young Ben Fordham was a cub reporter in Radio 2UE’s Canberra bureau at the time
Police and parliamentary security officers rushed to block the rioters off in the foyer.
Punches were thrown and protesters used gift shop objects, including political books, as missiles.
Some rioters cried out to the prime minister: ‘We’re coming to get you Johnny!’
Walls were graffitied. A few rioters tried to get past the police line by crowd-surfing over their heads.
A paint bomb was thrown. Legend has it that it ruined the suit of press gallery legend Laurie Oakes.
‘He got covered,’ Fordham said.
It took two hours for about 200 police to push the mob back. Forty-nine rioters were arrested and some 90 police and parliamentary security staff were injured, according to a history by academic Luke Deer.
Fordham said: ‘The most remarkable aspect of it was it came from no where. When it blew up, it exploded.’
Newly-elected prime minister John Howard condemned the storming of Parliament as an attack on the democratic process
Prime Minister Howard condemned the violence as an insult to the democratic process.
‘What occurred here today was un-Australian,’ he said. ‘Never under any circumstances will my government buckle to threats of physical violence or behaviour of that kind.’
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley was likewise scathing, calling rioters ‘lunatics’ and ‘louts’ who had spoiled a peaceful protest.
Speaker of the House Bob Halverson described it as one of the ‘most shameful’ episodes in the nation’s history.
The union movement suffered major political fallout. Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Bill Kelty gave a disastrous interview hailing the protest as a success. ‘It was so out of touch with reality,’ Fordham said.
But the country moved on, and the riot has mostly been forgotten about – until now, when parallels have been drawn with the US Capitol attack, in how the ‘people’s house’ was targeted.
A mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Congress last week. Above, a man in camouflage carries a set of flexible handcuffs. Others wore bullet proof vests
The angry mob climbed the walls of the ‘temple of democracy’ and stormed the Congress
All who were present at Parliament decades ago are thankful the protest, violent as it was, lacked the military hardware and sinister intent of those who attacked Washington to disrupt the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election.
Jim Middleton, the ABC chief political reporter at the time, told Daily Mail Australia the Parliament House riot was ‘frightening, confronting, violent and counter-productive’.
‘But they weren’t trying to overthrow the government,’ he said. They were simply trying to make a point, and if anything, did harm to their cause.
Likewise, the rioters came armed only with fists, not guns.
Mr Middleton said that didn’t excuse their behaviour at all – ‘but it’s not quite the same as turning up with body armour and flash bombs and Tasers.’
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