Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That this House:

(1) condemns:

(a) the ongoing violent and antisemitic protests taking place in Melbourne;

(b) the conduct of protestors who yesterday threw acid, faeces, canned food and bottles at police, punched horses and destroyed property;

(c) the protestors for the effect of their actions on law-abiding Victorians, including business owners who had their trade disrupted and property destroyed;

(d) the protestors for their attempts to jostle and manhandle journalists;

(e) the protestors for the physical and emotional toll their actions are taking on police and emergency services, men and women who have a sworn duty to protect the community and should not be subjected to this behaviour; and

(f) all those who take part in, encourage, or gave comfort to the violent protests; and

(2) calls on:

(a) state and federal authorities to charge and prosecute all people who engage in any sort of violent protest activity to the full extent of the law; and

(b) the Australian Greens to publicly condemn the actions of Victorian MP Gabrielle de Vietri, who has taken part in the violent protests.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Deakin from moving the following motion immediately:

That this House:

(1) condemns:

(a) the ongoing violent and antisemitic protests taking place in Melbourne;

(b) the conduct of protestors who yesterday threw acid, faeces, canned food and bottles at police, punched horses and destroyed property;

(c) the protestors for the effect of their actions on law-abiding Victorians, including business owners who had their trade disrupted and property destroyed;

(d) the protestors for their attempts to jostle and manhandle journalists;

(e) the protestors for the physical and emotional toll their actions are taking on police and emergency services, men and women who have a sworn duty to protect the community and should not be subjected to this behaviour; and

(f) all those who take part in, encourage, or gave comfort to the violent protests; and

(2) calls on:

(a) state and federal authorities to charge and prosecute all people who engage in any sort of violent protest activity to the full extent of the law; and

(b) the Australian Greens to publicly condemn the actions of Victorian MP Gabrielle de Vietri, who has taken part in the violent protests.

We have to suspend standing orders. It's an outrage that leave was not granted by this government. In fact, it's quite outrageous that we have not seen any statements in this House from the government on what is happening in Victoria right now at the Land Forces expo.

The Police Association of Victoria secretary described the people who are perpetrating this violence against our policemen and women as 'filthy, disgusting animals', and, on that, we entirely agree with the Police Association of Victoria secretary. Our policemen and women should not be referred to as 'animals on horses'. Protesters were chanting, 'Get those animals off the horses.' I'm here to send a message to every single man and woman in a police force around this country—and, most importantly, to those men and women who are protecting Victorians at a most critical time in Victoria—that the Australian coalition, the opposition in parliament, stands with you and thanks you for everything you are doing with these violent, radical left-wing protesters.

It is an absolute disgrace that 27 police officers have been injured in my home state of Victoria by this absolute rabble who have descended on the Land Forces expo. Twenty-seven police officers have been injured, and countless other police officers have had faeces, acid and cans thrown at them when they're doing nothing more than their duty of protecting Victorians. It is quite outrageous as well that this rabble is being given aid and comfort from no less than MPs in the Victorian parliament including the Greens MP referred to in my motion, Gabrielle de Vietri. It's remarkable, quite frankly, that we have not seen a statement in this House in solidarity with those men and women who are protecting Victorians.

And, let's not forget, it's not just the most amazing men and women that you can find, those in our police forces, who run towards danger and who don't run away from it when protecting Victorians, that are suffering; everyday Victorians are having their lives disrupted by this absolute rabble—or, as the Police Association of Victoria secretary refers to them, 'filthy, disgusting animals'. They are stopping everyday Victorians from getting around their city and being able to live their lives. How many people yesterday missed an important medical appointment because of this absolute rabble going on in the city? How many businesses, not just businesses in our CBD but businesses more broadly, have been affected by this absolute rabble that is occurring in our city?

I can tell you that people around Australia are looking at Victoria and saying, 'That is not who we are, and that is not the sort of country that we want.' We certainly don't want that spreading from Victoria any further. That's why we need leadership from this government. We need them to actually be giving the speech that I'm giving. We would have given the government leave to do this because it is so important that we send a strong message to those men and women.

Now, it's very easy for those opposite to be angry at me while our policemen and women are standing right now in the face of the fury from this absolute rabble, not to mention the police horses that are being mishandled and mistreated as well. They are there to protect Victorians and the least they deserve is some encouragement from the government that we stand with them. Well, the coalition—the opposition—will provide that sense of support to our men and women who, as we speak, will be doing what they did yesterday, supporting Victorians. It's a disgrace, quite frankly, that 27 of those men and women, the most outstanding people that you can find in our community, have been treated as human punching bags by this absolute rabble, by these 'filthy, disgusting animals', as referred to by the Police Association of Victoria.

Quite frankly, I think many Australians are looking at this as a seminal moment, because, since 7 October, we have seen these radical left-wing troublemakers—rabble rousers—causing disruption to our community wherever they possibly can. This is the professional protester set. Anything they can possibly protest on they will. As one gentleman reported yesterday, who had been held up for hours in traffic, as he finally got through, yelled out the window, 'Get a job', to most of those protesters. I suspect that's the view of most law-abiding Australians who are going about their business at a time when Australians are struggling to put food on the table, to pay their mortgages, to pay their rent, to pay their electricity bills. Their businesses and their lives are being disrupted by people who are, quite frankly, sitting there living off the government and finding any opportunity to protest. Treating our most amazing men and women in our police force, in the Victoria Police, as human punching bags is an absolute disgrace. We should send a very strong message that it will not be accepted, and no more of this softly-softly business with these protesters.

We all in this House defend people's right to protest. In the lead-up to these so-called protests in the last few weeks, we were assured by these disgusting individuals that they would be protesting peacefully. Well, we now know that they are abject liars at the same time. If any of them now want to claim that we saw yesterday was a peaceful protest then they are more bizarre-o than any of us could imagine. It was so far from being peaceful. We do not support violent protests like this. We will condemn it in this House. We expect, and Australians have an expectation, that our Prime Minister will stand up and condemn it in the strongest terms.

The leadership of this country starts from the Prime Minister and it is a disgrace that he is being quiet. As to the coalition partner of this government in the Greens, it's quite frankly shocking to me, and I think even to those people opposite me, that an MP in the Victorian parliament—an MP!—has taken part in these violent protests.

MP Gabrielle de Vietri from the Greens political party has engaged in a so-called protest that has led to 27 policemen and women being injured, some of them being hospitalised, and people chanting, 'Get those animals off the horses.' Well, I'm here to tell those 'disgusting, filthy animals'—in the words of the Police Association of Victoria secretary—that those are not animals on horses; they are the best of Australia. They are the absolute best men and women, as I said, who go out every single day and put their safety on the line to protect their fellow Australians. They should be revered. The police should not be treated as human punching bags by a bunch of rabble, by disgusting, filthy animals who are living off the government and living off the hard work of the police, quite frankly. For that very reason, it is important that we suspend standing orders and make very clear to our men and women in the police forces, not just in Victoria but throughout our country, we stand with you. You are the best of Australia and we are here in solidarity.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion; I support the suspension. People have the right to protest, but they have to do it peacefully. All around our country there has been a growing sense of lawlessness since 7 October. The violence involved in Melbourne's protest yesterday is shocking, and all too often governments aren't throwing the book at people who thumb their nose at the law and show no respect for their fellow Australians. Unlike yesterday, too often law enforcement officials aren't acting, because they're taking their cues from politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouths on this issue. And all too often, as yesterday, Greens MPs are encouraging or participating in such protests.

Yesterday people threw acid, faeces, bags of vomit, padlocks, apples, chairs, canned food and bottles at police. They punched horses and destroyed property. They set alight plastic bins and prevented firefighters from getting to them so that chemical fumes from burning plastic would pervade the air. These are among the worst incidents, but they're not isolated. This is Australia since 7 October. The protesters get more and more brazen because too often they're not dealt with by the full force of the law.

Australians are shocked by what we've seen since 7 October: the lighting of flares, the burning of flags and the chanting of slogans seeking to harm Jews at the Sydney Opera House on 9 October; the intimidatory drive-throughs in Jewish suburbs; the confrontations outside synagogues; the vandalism and firebombing of MPs' electorate offices, a straightforward terrorist act; the vandalism of war memorials; the vandalism of Jewish property, including schools, calling for death to Jews; hate preachers openly calling for the murder of Jews and vilifying Jews as being subhuman; the doxxing of Jewish creatives, artists and small businesses; a Greens MP repeating antisemitic tropes without being condemned by her own party; posters of Hitler going up all over Jewish suburbs; protests outside Jewish schools and synagogues; the violent protests at the Victorian Labor conference, which saw MPs being jostled and attacked and delayed the conference, forcing the Victorian Premier and Deputy Premier into a safe room; violent and aggressive protests at peaceful rallies against antisemitism; trespassing on and defacing the federal parliament; and our university campuses, where violence and intimidation go unchecked, where rapes are denied and where Hizb ut-Tahrir get a seat at the table.

Law-abiding Australians are struggling to recognise the country they love. On this side of the House we stand with law-abiding Australians and we say this lawlessness must stop. We stand with law-abiding Australians when we say let these protesters feel the full force of the law. We stand with law-abiding Australians when we say to this government that this is a time for moral clarity; this is not a time to have a bet each way. There are two things the government can do right now. Firstly they can support the motion to suspend standing orders to bring on this very important debate. Secondly they can support the judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses, because that's where the bad behaviour we saw yesterday originates. Today all of the major Jewish bodies in the country support the inquiry, none of the universities oppose the inquiry and the government's own people, like Marjorie O'Neill, the Labor member for Coogee in New South Wales, and Phil Dalidakis, the former Victorian Labor minister, are calling for this inquiry.

The government's own appointed antisemitism envoy, Jill Segal, has strongly recommended the judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campuses, and she has called into question the ultimate efficacy of the government's alternative inquiry undertaken by the Human Rights Commission. I want to quote Ms Segal's powerful words. She says:

… the situation is very grave and indeed much more serious and alarming than I expected.

Antisemitic behaviour is not only present on many campuses but is an embedded part of the culture. Universities have not taken appropriate action to denounce and suppress it: it has become systemic. The Jewish students are traumatised and feel isolated and unsafe. They are not participating as they should in university life. They have been told by their university administration to stay home for their own safety. This normalised antisemitism is incredibly dangerous to our society as it is an attitude and behaviour that eats away at the fabric of the mission of the tertiary sector. To date university leadership is either in denial about how serious and normalized antisemitism has become on their campuses or … has failed to truly understand what constitutes antisemitism and has responded by placating activist forces. …

The situation on Australian university campuses must change.

She goes on to demonstrate how judicial inquiries or royal commissions bring about important societal changes, particularly in institutions like universities, which have a particular role in developing the next generation.

It is for all these reasons that the suspension of standing orders must occur. What we saw on Melbourne streets yesterday cannot go unremarked by this House. We cannot continue to see the lawlessness which has pervaded our country—on university campuses, on our streets and in other places—continue unchecked.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the debate be adjourned.