Jason Harrison sits near the Sacred Fire at the Musgrave park tent Embassy, Brisbane, on March 31. Credit:Harrison Saragossi "I believe that the individuals who are protesting have had their day in the sun. It's now time for them to do the right thing by the people who enjoy those parks as well and move on. "And I would ask them to do that, I would ask them to do the right thing, and to vacate the site." When asked whether he would support police action to move them on, Mr Newman said: "If Brisbane City Council asked the police for support to move people on, then of course it would be provided." The spokesman for the Brisbane Sovereign Embassy at West End, Wayne Wharton, said the 150 or so indigenous people who hade joined the embassy in support would not be moved by the council notice.

The kitchen at the Musgrave Park Tent Embassy. Credit:Harrison Saragossi Established two months ago, Mr Wharton said the embassy stood as an “information centre” for indigenous sovereign rights, in solidarity with the long standing tent embassy at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said he visited the site on Saturday, on advice from Brisbane indigenous elders not connected to the movement, to tell the members “it was time to move on”. Cr Quirk said the tent embassy site was needed for the Paniyiri Greek festival this weekend as well as several upcoming events. A spokeswoman for the Paniyiri Festival, which has been held at the park on the same weekend in May for the past 36 years, said festival organisers had been advised not to comment on the situation by the council.

"Paniyiri Festival cannot comment on the current situation in Musgrave Park at West End, given the issue is a park management one, and therefore under the Brisbane City Council," she said. The festival organisers hire the park from the council for the event. Cr Quirk said an eviction notice had been served but it was not accepted by embassy representatives. “I accept that they have a message that they wish to sell to the people of Brisbane and I am not denying that message,” Cr Quirk told 612 ABC Brisbane. “I have offered an alternative site in relation to that, but it can’t be on the same basis as an embassy that is growing in terms of its size, that is not part of the negotiated offer, but it has certainly reached the time where it has to be closed in its current form.”

But Mr Wharton said the alternative site was not the council’s to offer “This is a Brisbane embassy, we have delegates from many [indigenous] nations throughout the country as well as the nations who occupied Brisbane,” he said. “What he [Cr Quirk] has to look at is the indigenous nation throughout the state are coming here, to utilise the Brisbane embassy to put our case forward for sovereignty. “The other site that he has offered, he has no responsibility over. It belongs to the Musgrave Park Aboriginal Cultural Centre, that land is designated as a cultural centre and has nothing to do with the council, he shouldn’t be offering other people’s sites, other people’s land.” The proposed site is adjacent to the existing tent embassy, which is in the middle of Musgrave Park.

Mr Wharton said the embassy would not be moved voluntarily. “We will see it being played out to a just end,” he said. “People are not going to use us as a political football. Sooner or later, the state government has to answer the question and that question is sovereignty and what sort of sovereign rights belong in this state. “If [Cr] Quirk issues the order and police move in, we will be defending ourselves, both within the legal process as well as the occupation process. Loading

“I don’t know about a tense 12 hours, but we are here for a long time. We don’t care whether this fight ends in 12 months or three years.” - with Daniel Hurst