Old Parliament House justice will be a slow but sure burn

However, like the federal investigations into the Capitol Building riots and invasion in Washington DC in early January, this one will be what is known in police investigative circles as a "slow burn".

On Friday, the Australian Federal Police - which provides officers to the ACT government under a financial contract - announced it would form a joint taskforce to investigate the incident.

"The taskforce will use the AFP's world-leading forensics and technological capability to identify and locate those responsible for damaging Commonwealth property, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment," the AFP said.

The key perpetrators to the incident, whom are strongly suspected to be "blow-ins" from interstate, are best not to bask in their success at pulling off such an ill-considered act scot-free. The knock at the door will come at a time when it is least expected.

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First Nations leaders roundly condemned the vandalism. On social media, GetUp First Nations Justice Campaigns Director Larissa Baldwin said "freedom day" protesters had "hijacked" Aboriginal activists.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy group were also annoyed at what had transpired. This was not their style, either.

Right through the COVID pandemic, there have been those in our community who have been vehemently opposed to having vaccination mandates thrust upon them, and have expressed those concerns in many and varied ways.

We've seen the unmasked marching in capital cities around the country, outraged that a simple pandemic should restrict their "freedom".

But bubbling along beneath the anti-vax sentiment are those with quasi-shared ideals, like the sovereign state collective and the so-called First Nations sovereign unionists.

Opportunism takes many forms when there's sufficient numbers to shroud your allegiances.

Police were well-advised to take a cautious approach when the Old Parliament House flare-up occurred.

On a slow post-Christmas news day, a baton-wielding fracas with police wading into protesters - a proportion of whom were Indigenous - could well have turned into an international story.

But equally, police intelligence-gathering should never have allowed this incident to escalate. The police were wrong-footed, and reputational damage occurred as a result.

Justice now has some catch-up to do.

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