Queensland Senator Matt Canavan has finally issued a statement on his racist “Black Coal Matters” slogan and uhh, somehow he’s managed to be even *more* racist.
In case you missed it, Canavan kicked off day one of his election campaign with a controversial “Black Coal Matters” sticker on the side of his ute, seemingly mocking the very serious Black Lives Matter movement.
As you’d expect, Canavan was quickly called out for the stunt online, but it turns out his response is even more fucked, with the senator straight up saying he doesn’t pay respect to BLM.
“I don’t pay respect to the Black Lives Matter movement who have organised rallies in defiance of public health orders, who have been involved in violent protest in the US with Antifa and until recently had on their website as one of their goals to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,” Canavan said in a statement provided to Jarni Blakkarly.
“I fully support the Central Queenslanders who are rallying to fight for their jobs and communities by freely expressing their views in a free society. Good on them.”
I sent Senator Matt Canavan’s office a question about the ‘Black Coal Matters’ sticker on the ute and got this response… pic.twitter.com/zRTfkXnOxY
— Jarni Blakkarly (@JarniBlakkarly) October 5, 2020
Just so we’re clear, we’ll keep a running tally of things Canavan does and doesn’t support.
He does *NOT* support the Black Lives Matter movement, which is actively fighting racism and the disproportionate amount of Black deaths in custody. But he does support *checks notes* coal.
Cool, cool, cool.
Despite the backlash, the post remains live on his Facebook page at the time of publishing, but is now flooded with comments pointing out that it’s really quite fucked to mock the Black Lives Matter movement like this.
Bob’s back! And this time he is on a mission to create 500 jobs at the New Acland Mine. If you want to join Bob’s…
Posted by Senator Matthew Canavan on Sunday, October 4, 2020
We probably shouldn’t be fighting for *more* coal mining, considering the state of the planet right now. But sure, unemployment is through the roof right now and honestly, a job is a job.
But what’s not okay here is undermining a serious movement that is quite literally fighting for peoples lives in an attempt to bring a shred of relevancy to your political campaign.
It’s not exactly surprising, but now we’ve heard it from his own mouth: Matt Canavan does not pay respect to the Black Lives Matter movement.
