A number of monuments across Sydney's CBD have been attacked by vandals, including a statue of Captain James Cook, following fierce public debate about whether it should be changed.
Police are investigating "a number of incidents of malicious damage" in the park, believed to have happened between 2am and 3am on Saturday.
"Three crime scenes have been established throughout the park and inquiries are continuing," a spokeswoman told AAP.
The words "change the date" and "no pride in genocide" were spray-painted on the Captain Cook statue, with similar words scrawled on that of Lachlan Macquarie.
The graffiti attack comes just days after Indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant called for the inscription on the Cook statue - saying he "discovered" the territory in 1770 - be changed.
But Malcolm Turnbull, weighing into the debate on Friday, said Grant was "dead wrong".
The prime minister said the vast majority of Australians would share his horror at the thought of "rewriting history" by editing the inscriptions on statues.
"All of those statues, all of those monuments, are part of our history and we should respect them and preserve them," he told Neil Mitchell on 3AW radio.
"By all means, put up other monuments, put up other signs and sites that explain our history."
He denounced such a "Stalinist exercise" of trying to white out or obliterate parts of Australia's history.
"You don't rewrite history by editing stuff out. If you want to write a new chapter of our history, if you want to challenge assumptions in the past, by all means do so," he said.
A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the council was also cleaning up graffiti that appeared overnight in Martin Place and Macquarie Street.
"Sites affected include the Archibald Memorial Fountain, ANZAC Memorial and statues including the Captain James Cook statue," she told AAP.
"NSW Police have completed forensic work and City cleaning crews have commenced work to remove the unlawful graffiti."
Share
