Aussie star hit by anti-vaxxer death threats

Dingo, 65, has been touring northern Western Australia to try and boost Indigenous vaccination rates across the state.

The Great Outdoors host has been working to get rid of the stigma against the coronavirus vaccine in remote Indigenous communities across Western Australia.

“People don’t sit down and talk a lot with our elders and that’s what the issue is,” Dingo told the ABC earlier this week.

“It’s a slow pace, when you sit down with the elders, you’ve got to sit through. You learn more by never asking a question. But in this case, we need to speed things up.”

Dingo’s tour of the state has been targeted by a number of anti-vax social media groups, with the groups’ thousands of members mobilising against Dingo.

According to Perth Now, Dingo has been hit with a slew of death threats and racial abuse as he spends two months travelling across Western Australia on a federal government-funded trip.

One commenter attacked Dingo, claiming he was a “traitor against your own people”.

“Promoting genocide in exchange for … paper notes, this will be your legacy Ernie Dingo,” another wrote.

More than 71 per cent of West Australians over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus however some of the state’s more remote regions have lagging rates.

In Port Hedland, only 21.7 per cent of Indigenous Australians over the age of 15 are fully vaccinated and 24.3 per cent are fully vaccinated in Karratha.

According to the National Indigenous Times, 49.89 per cent of WA‘s indigenous population has received one dose of any vaccine, and 33.82 per cent have received two. Both towns are in the state’s north.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan lashed the behaviour of anti-vaxxers earlier this week after he revealed he had been forced to close his electoral office due to death threats, rape threats against his staff and people turning up with guns.

Mr McGowan told reporters there had been a raft of threats after his government mandated the Covid-19 vaccine for most workforces.

“There’s been death threats, there’s been threats to rape my staff, there’s been people threatening to bomb my office,” he said on Wednesday.

“Someone turned up with an armoured car with a machine gun on the top.

“This is unbelievable conduct.”

The Premier said it was particularly unfair to target staff and their families.

“Unfortunately, that’s the way these people are conducting themselves,” he said.

“I just ask them to stop and just act like reasonable human beings.”

Mr McGowan also condemned comments made by anti-vaxxer extremists towards the media and other politicians.

“This sort of language, this sort of abuse and this sort of threatening behaviour is un-Australian, it’s wrong and it’s absolutely over the top,” he said.

“It’s causing immense distress and harm to many people.

“I’d just urge all those people acting like that to stop. A lot of it is unlawful. A lot of it is criminal.”

It comes after the Premier’s personal phone number was leaked and anti-vaxxers also showed up to his Rockingham home.

– With NCA NewsWire

Originally published as Ernie Dingo targeted by antivaxxers, hit with death threats over Covid vaccination campaign