Cheeky Aussie icon Rolf Harris has landed himself in hot water after recent comments about Indigenous Australians that have offended the Aboriginal Community.
Harris, who is in Australia to launch a book and perform a series of dates, told Fairfax media the choice to include the “let me Abos go loose” line in his most popular hit Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, was a regrettable one.
However, Harris said that the lyrics were not intended to be offensive, and fit into the context of the song – a story about a dying stockman.
But it wasn’t the lyrics of the song that caused the offence, it was a series of comments afterwards that created a stir.
"You sit at home watching the television and you think to yourself: 'Get up off your arse and clean up the streets your bloody self' and 'Why would you expect somebody to come in and clean up your garbage which you've dumped everywhere?' But then you have to think to yourself that it's a different attitude to life,'' the 78-year-old said.
Dennis Eggington, from the Aboriginal Legal Service, said that the comments were insensitive and disparaging.
"Rolf Harris should stick to doing portraits of his beloved Queen, rather than painting indigenous Australia with his broad and bigoted brushstrokes,'' Mr Eggington said.
"The picture he has painted with his most recent inflammatory comments shows an artist who is all too willing to dip into a poisoned palette.
"There is nothing compassionate or dignified about an individual, born into advantage solely due to his colonial heritage, who returns to his country of birth and blames those most traumatised by the impacts of colonization.
"Mr Harris, there is not an Aboriginal problem in this country, there is a post-colonial problem and until people of your ilk claim collective responsibility for past and present denials of social justice, then we will continue to have unpleasant realities putting you off your dinner, whilst you watch your television.''
"We didn't make the mess and by referring to it as an 'Aboriginal problem' assumes we should be the ones solely responsible for cleaning it up,'' he said.
Rolf Harris has not yet responded to the comments.