Mr Abbott says he has been "verballed" and never suggested that the Tent Embassy be removed.

"I never said that and I don't think that," he said.

• Founded in 1972 to protest over the then government's refusal to recognise Indigenous land rights.
• Disbanded by police in July 1972 after protesters' demands were rejected.
• Peacefully dismantled in response to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in 1976.
• Re-established on the original site in 1992 to mark the 20th anniversary of the original embassy.
• Officially recognised in 1995 as representing the political struggle of Indigenous Australians.
• Firebombed several times, most recently in 2003.

JULIA GILLARD'S staff were last night fighting off allegations of a cover-up after the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of one of her media advisers who admitted to triggering the Australia Day fracas outside a Canberra restaurant.

Tony Hodges, one of Ms Gillard's press secretaries, resigned after admitting he told a third party the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, was at The Lobby restaurant. The information was passed on to Aboriginal tent embassy protesters, who believed Mr Abbott had earlier called for the closure of the embassy.

Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott had to be hustled away from the restaurant by security after the protesters demonstrated noisily outside.

...

But these improvements have not obviated the need for an "embassy", which serves as a reminder of the unique status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian history, culture and society, and of the often desperate challenges facing ATSI people as a population.

Indigenous people suffer cancer, diabetes and alcohol and drug abuse at far greater rates than the total Australian population. Rates of incarceration, deaths in custody and teenage and even child suicide are astronomical. Infamously, there is a 17-year gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous people.