October 3, 2024
PETER STEFANOVIC: Well anti-Israel activists vowing to defy police and the demands of political leaders and protest on the first anniversary of the October 7th Hamas terror attacks. Joining us live now is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, what do you make of that?
SENATOR PATERSON: Well, frankly it's despicable, Pete. Let's remember what happened on the 7th October. The 7th of October is the day in which the greatest loss of Jewish life since the end of the Holocaust occurred. It's the day in which Hamas broke into Israel, slaughtered 1,200 people, captured 250 more and dragged them back into Gaza as hostages, where many of them remain today. 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. So, there's only two reasons why you would think it is a good idea if you're a pro-Palestinian organiser to hold a protest on the 7th October. One is if you believe that what happened on the 7th of October is worthy of celebration, and sadly we know there are many in the pro-Palestinian movement in Australia who believe that. And the second is which is if you want to cause deliberate hurt and inflict deliberate distress on the Australian Jewish community, who will be in mourning. That's the only reasons why you would do it. So it reflects incredibly poorly on the organisers that they would do this and frankly it reflects incredibly poorly on the Victorian Government, the Federal Government and the New South Wales Government if they let it go ahead. 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.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, that's right that's the difference here. This one's going to the Supreme Court in New South Wales anyway. But more broadly, James, is this what happens when language and laws are not strong enough?
PATERSON: 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. He's shown no moral clarity. He's shown no moral courage. He has not used his position as the office of prime minister to really push back against this and to say it's completely unacceptable and he's not ensured that our laws are enforced. There are very strong laws against incitement to violence, there are very strong laws against the public display of terrorist symbols. 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, then remedying that so they can be enforced. But there's been no action, just empty words.
STEFANOVIC: And you'd expect that the Greens wouldn't be saying much about the protests, at least negative side of the protest anyway?
PATERSON: Well, the Greens thought it was a good idea to be there on Sunday, palling around with people waving Hezbollah flags and engaging in incitement to violence against the Jewish community with chants. I mean, the Greens, by their association, tell us a lot about themselves. And any decent person I think should carry that message all the way through to election day and send the Greens a very strong message about this tolerance of anti-Semitism within their ranks.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Just to wrap up here, there are reports this morning, James, that a RAAF plane has landed in Cyprus. This is going to be, I suppose, a point where expats will be evacuated, possibly from Lebanon to Cyprus, short journey there to take Australians out. A good start, do you think?
PATERSON: In 2006, Pete, when there was another war between Israel and Hezbollah we evacuated many Australians through Cyprus, first by sea and then by air, and the Australian Government would have in place similar evacuation plans now and that's the appropriate thing to do. The thing which worries me, frankly, is that the government has been warning for months for Australians in Lebanon to leave and there are thousands of Australians who have not heeded that advice. And it is now likely there are more Australians in Lebanon than any Australian government has the ability to evacuate. And no doubt there'll be significant criticism of the government of that and maybe there'll be some criticism which will be reasonable. But unfortunately there will also be people who just ignored the advice, who did not heed the advice or did not take it seriously, who didn't get a plane out when they could and unfortunately might now be trapped.
STEFANOVIC: Alright, James Paterson, we'll leave it there. Thanks for your time, though, we'll chat again soon.
ENDS
