OLIVER PETERSON: The Australian Federal Police is going to concede a prosecutions of at least six people who attended a pro-Hezbollah rally in Melbourne on Sunday, and that's for allegedly displaying prohibited terrorist symbols and participating in hateful chants. The Shadow Minister for Home Affairs is James Paterson, and he joins me live on 6PR this afternoon. Senator, thank you for your time.
JAMES PATERSON: Great to be with you, Ollie.
PETERSON: This is something you and your colleagues have been calling for all day, it looks like the AFP is now starting to act.
PATERSON: Well, it's an extraordinary and embarrassing backflip from the AFP because this morning they issued a statement that they wouldn't be charging anyone from the rally yesterday because no crimes were committed. Now, it's not possible to conduct an adequate investigation in the time it took them to put out that statement, let alone a full investigation with interviews. So it never should have been issued, I'm pleased that they have finally read the room and realised it's totally unacceptable to Australians to be glorifying and praising terrorist organisations and displaying their symbols in the streets of Melbourne and Sydney. But it shouldn't have taken them this long. They should have worked this out 12 months ago and I think really the missing ingredient has been political leadership.
PETERSON: Is that because of what happened last year in Sydney on the Opera House steps after October 7th, that it wasn't condemned to the extreme by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Is that where you're pointing the finger Senator Paterson?
PATERSON: That's exactly right. From the steps of the Sydney Opera House and every weekend since then, there have been Hamas symbols and logos. There have been Hezbollah symbols and logos, and there have been incitement to violence against the Australian Jewish community. And no action has been taken. And the Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, the Home Affairs Minister, have clearly not conveyed their expectations to the federal police that the law be enforced. I mean in senate estimates in June, I tabled dozens of photos for the federal police of people wearing terrorism logos, terrorist headbands on the streets of Melbourne and asked them to investigate it. And nothing has happened until today and it's a disgrace that it's taken this long frankly.
PETERSON: The states have the laws in place, Senator Paterson, we do here in Western Australia about these sorts of symbols and Nazi symbols, insignia and the like. We have the laws in place. Why won't state governments, AFP or state police forces want to act?
PATERSON: Well, that's a very good question because the federal parliament introduced these crimes in December last year. It was a unanimous vote of the parliament. No one voted against it. And it criminalised not only the display of Nazi symbols, but also the symbols of listed terrorist organisations. I think there's been a lack of will to enforce the law, because the police have feared that it would be politically inconvenient for the government, and because the government hasn't made it clear it's a priority. I mean, when Peter Dutton was Minister for Home Affairs, he regularly sat down with the AFP and he made it clear to them what his expectations were about enforcing the law when it comes to terrorism or child sex abuses or any other criminals. And there's no evidence that Mark Dreyfus has ever done that, that Tony Burke has ever done that, let alone the Prime Minister has ever done that.
PETERSON: When you say politically in terms of what votes, that the government of the day, the Labor Party realises if they're too tough on this, it could boot them out of office come whatever month we go to the election?
PATERSON: I think that's the only plausible explanation for why the Prime Minister has been so weak and so impotent in the face of the worst anti-Semitism crisis we've ever seen in our country. I mean, I think any previous prime minister, Labor or Liberal, would have taken this head on and showed moral clarity and moral courage in fighting it. But the Prime Minister has been weak and equivocal and impotent, and I think it's because he fears what would happen in south west Sydney, where a number of his MPs are under assault politically from pro-Palestinian elements and in fact there's the Muslim votes matter groups and others who are running pro-Gaza independents against his own MP's. It must be because he fears the consequences of that, that he's not been willing to act.
PETERSON: The difficulty is going to be from Sunday, when you look at a lot of that footage and the pictures that you might scour online, a lot of people's faces are covered. They might not be easily identified, the AFP saying it's now going to be referring this to Victoria Police, obviously working hand in hand. It's going to scour news footage for evidence of further potential offences. Senator, do you think that this could also lead to the cancellation of some people's visas should they be here in Australia?
PATERSON: Well, I hope it does, because if you are here on a visa and you support and glorify and praise a terrorist organisation, then you've breached all of the character provisions of the Migration Act. Your visa should be cancelled and you should be deported. And Tony Burke has raised the possibility that he might do that. But talk is cheap. He's actually got to follow through and make sure he does it. And then I'll believe that this government is serious about addressing this problem.
PETERSON: Senator Paterson, thanks for your time.
PATERSON: Thanks Ollie.
ENDS