Australia: Is it a struggle for freedom or ordinary vandalism?

The beheaded statue of King George V is seen in Kings Domain, Melbourne.

A statue of King George V has been decapitated in Melbourne by vandals who have dedicated the attack to King Charles – just months before he is due to visit Australia with the Queen, ‘The Daily Mail’ writes.

Anti-monarchists filmed the beheading and posted it online with the soundtrack of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols as assaults on royal and colonial-era monuments continue Down Under and in the Commonwealth including Canada.

The attack happened yesterday as Australia enjoyed a public holiday to mark the current King's official birthday, which is always on the second Monday in June.

Police in Victoria are investigating but a group called WACA, which stands for the Whistleblowers, Activists and Communities Alliance, have already taken responsibility as critics again branded Australia the most 'woke country in the world'.

It came amid a spate of attacks on Australian statues of great British figures such as Queen Victoria and Captain Cook over the past year. This vandalism has also happened in other parts of the former British empire, with even the beloved late Queen Elizabeth II's statue in Canada toppled in 2021.

A recent poll found Australians believe their country has never been so divided. This division has been blamed on the nation's left-wing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Other statues have been the target of vandals this year, including a statue of Captain James Cook that was cut at the ankles before it toppled in Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne on February 27.

Anti-British attacks on statues in Australia are becoming more common.

On Australia Day in January monuments to Captain Cook and Queen Victoria took place. A second monument to Captain Cook at Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy was found broken and covered in graffiti over the Australia Day long weekend.

Hard-left group Antifa claimed responsibility for cutting down the statue of the great explorer at the shins and spraying 'the colony will fall' on the plinth, even though he died a decade before British colonialists first arrived at Sydney 235 years ago tomorrow.

100,000 people marched through capital Canberra demanding Australia Day is renamed 'Invasion Day’.

The Melbourne statue attacks came three months after 9million Australians returned an overwhelming rejection of a referendum to give greater political rights to indigenous people. All six states voted No in what was branded Australia's 'Brexit moment'.

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