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November 11, 2023
JAMES PATERSON: Good afternoon. Caufield is a beautiful place. It's home to Melbourne's vibrant Jewish community and it has the largest number of Holocaust survivors and their descendants of any city in the world outside of Israel. Friday is a special night for people of the Jewish faith. It's called Shabbat and it's where many Jews go to their synagogue or their shul to pray, or they have a Shabbat dinner at their home with their family and friends. And so of all the places in Melbourne to protest and of all the nights to do it on, these pro-Palestinian activists chose Friday night in Caulfield, in a park across the road from a synagogue to hold their pro-Palestinian protest. Now, this has had entirely predictable and foreseeable consequences. The first is, that the synagogue had to be evacuated by police in the middle of Friday night prayers. The second is we saw those awful and ugly scenes of violence unfold as we all feared we would. And thirdly, the Jewish community in Australia has woken up this morning feeling even more fearful for their safety and their security in Australia than they already did. That is a shocking thing for all Australians to contemplate today.
What it requires is unequivocal condemnation from all political leaders. This was an irresponsible protest that was designed to intimidate and designed to incite, and that's exactly what it did. Police also have to step up. This protest should not have taken place when it did and where it did. And it should not happen again. We should have learned the lessons of the Sydney Opera House protest and made sure that ugly scenes like that never occurred again. But here we are.
And finally, I just want to make some comments about the alleged arson of a burger restaurant nearby, which was apparently one of the motivations for the protest. Let me be unequivocally clear. Arson of any small business is totally and utterly unacceptable. It should be thoroughly investigated. I hope the perpetrators are identified. I hope they are arrested, and I hope they are punished to the full extent of the law, whatever their motivation was. The best available advice we have right now from police is that they do not believe this was politically or religiously motivated. But regardless of whatever the cause was, these people must be punished and investigated within the full extent of the law. Happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: There is a suggestion of a similar protest being planned in Sydney tonight. What would your message be to authorities there?
PATERSON: I'm incredibly concerned about reports that these scenes and these events could be repeated in Sydney tonight, and I call on the New South Wales Government and the Premier Chris Minns and New South Wales Police to make sure this is not repeated again. They said after the Sydney Opera House they wouldn't allow these scenes to ever happen again, and the Jewish community and all Australians will hold them to that commitment.
JOURNALIST: On the announcement yesterday with Tuvalu, are you encouraged by that, particularly the security element, that nation that is recognised as Taiwan rather than China?
PATERSON: Yes, I think it is a positive development. Australia has always said under the governments of both stripes that we are there to provide security and assistance to our partners, to our family, to our friends in the Pacific whenever it is called upon. And we're proud to be the security partner of choice for many in the Pacific. And that that's been strengthened with Tuvalu is very welcome.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about a cyber attack on shipping company DP world?
PATERSON: Yes. I am very concerned by an apparent cyber incident affecting the shipping company DP World, and the flow on consequences this could have for our economy and society. We don't yet know whether this is a cyber attack, it is some kind of outage. And we don't yet know if it is a cyber attack, who is responsible. But we do know that both criminal gangs and state backed actors do seek to target companies like DP World. Firstly, because they can hold them to ransom and profit from it and secondly, because they can be used to harm our society and our economy more widely. Shipping and ports are critical infrastructure in Australia, and they do need to be maintained and protected and it is very important that the federal government steps in and assist DP World to get to the bottom of this attack, determine what it is, and stop it if it can be. Thanks, everyone.
ENDS
