'Where's the BBQ?': Australia Day billboard featuring two women wearing hijabs causes outrage
A billboard promoting Melbourne’s Australia Day festivities has caused controversy by featuring two women wearing hijabs.
The sign advertised details of an RACV-sponsored event at Melbourne’s King's Domain Gardens.
The two smiling women were the only people on the advertisement, which also included an Australian flag.
It appeared alongside the Peninsula Link Freeway, in Melbourne’s south east, and sparked online outrage after a photograph of the sign was first shared by far-right Facebook groups on Friday.
The post was shared thousands of times and sparked hundreds of comments from people who claimed the women, who appeared to be Muslim, did not represent Australians.
“That billboard does not represent Australia,” one person commented.
Another added: “Where's the BBQ, beach, sun, bikinis? At a quick glance looks like a billboard for an immigration school.
“This board does not represent Australia and how we celebrate it!!”
A third person wrote: “I wonder what would happen in a Muslim country if they put up a billboard with girls in bikinis and shirtless guys having a beer around a BBQ?????”
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Some supporters of the advertisement, visible between Rutherford and Dandenong/Frankston roads, argued it helped reflect Australia’s multiculturalism, which should be embraced.
“So whats the problem?!! Are the people in the poster not Australian?! Thats (sic) the whole point, INCLUSION
