October 3, 2024
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson has blasted activists in Sydney planning to defy authorities’ directions by pushing ahead with protests for the anniversary of October 7 despite NSW Police's bid to stop the rallies.
The Palestine Action Group (PAG) has vowed to continue with planned demonstrations on Sunday and Monday no matter the outcome of a Supreme Court application lodged by police to prevent them from occurring.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the group declared a "snap rally" to fight for its right to protest, calling on its supporters to gather on Thursday afternoon outside the court near Sydney's Martin Place.
NSW Police earlier this week declared protests to mark October 7 could not happen safely in the public space following negotiations with the group.
"Nothing will stop us protesting for Palestine and Lebanon this Sunday! Spread the word! Stop the genocide! Hands off Lebanon!" PAG declared in its post on Wednesday.
"We hope we will win in court. But whatever happens our protest will be going ahead."
Mr Paterson condemned the decision as “despicable” in light of the anniversary of 1,200 people being slaughtered and hundreds taken hostage, some of whom are still held captive in Gaza.
“There was no Israeli Defense Force response on the 7th of October. There was no military activity in Gaza on the 7th of October, there was only a slaughter of Jews,” he told Sky News Australia on Thursday.
“So there's only two reasons why you would think it is a good idea, if you were a pro-Palestinian organiser, to hold a protest on the 7th October.
"One is if you believe that what happened on the 7th October is worthy of celebration. And sadly, we know there are many in the pro-Palestinian movement in Australia who believe that."
Mr Paterson said it would also “cause deliberate hurt and inflict deliberate distress on the Australian Jewish community” who will be in mourning on the day.
“So it reflects incredibly poorly on the organisers that they would do this.”
Pro-Palestine rallies are also set to go ahead in Melbourne this weekend after Victoria Police revealed it is powerless to stop the protests.
Mr Paterson said the matter reflected “incredibly poorly” on the federal and state governments, calling for greater action in preventing the behaviour.
“To New South Wales’ credit though they are at least trying to stop it, in Victoria and federally they're just saying it's all too hard, we can't do anything about it,” he said.
“It's what happens when laws are not enforced and when political leadership is not delivered. The Prime Minister for the last 12 months has been unable to confront the reality, the shocking and disturbing reality of the anti-Semitism crisis that we have in this country."
Mr Paterson argued Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has “shown no moral courage” nor used his position to push back against the behaviour and condemn it as “unacceptable”.
“There are very strong laws against incitement to violence, there are very strong laws against the public display of terrorist symbols," he said.
“And all we've had for the last 12 months is excuses as to why those laws cannot be enforced rather than a direction to police that they should be enforced, or if there are problems with the drafting of those laws in remedying that so they can be enforced. But there's been no action, just empty words.”
PAG had told police during negotiations the group was not in a position to stop the flying of terrorist flags in the protest this long weekend, the NSW Premier has said.
Police also suspect there will be more than the 200-300 demonstrators the organisers have claimed will attend, meaning it would be difficult to manage the crowd.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed the police force's court application and said there will be details on the decision later on Thursday.
"They may order mandatory arbitration between New South Wales Police and the protests organisers but hopefully we'll have an idea of their decision," he said.
"We remain committed to the idea that holding a protest on Monday, which is obviously the anniversary of October 7th, which was a devastating terror attack on Israel ... is not the right thing to do.
He added it would be "hugely unsympathetic to those that are going through pain at the moment".
