Shorten urges Allan government to consider protest permit over ‘week-in, week-out’ rallies
The prams of babies have been draped with head scarfs and fake stretchers for the dead carried through Melbourne streets as hundreds gathered to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival.
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The prams of newborn babies have been draped with head scarfs and fake stretchers for the dead carried through Melbourne streets as hundreds gathered, and prepared to camp overnight on the steps of Parliament House, to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival.
The group is gathering at the Marquis of Linlithgow Memorial for a vigil and silent procession to the steps of Parliament House where it intends to spend the night.
Six mocked up stretchers of dead bodies draped in Palestinian flags were carried into the vigil by participants before getting proceedings got underway.
People in the crowd also carried drums despite the march supposed to be silent.
Teal candidate’s Oct 7 post slammed
A Teal candidate has been condemned for using the October 7 anniversary to criticise Israel’s response to the “horrendous” Hamas attack.
Deb Leonard, an independent candidate for Monash, took to Facebook on Monday to highlight that the attack “then sparked a mass annihilation of innocent Palestinian people”.
“The UN has openly stated that Israel is breaching human rights and international law in its response to the attack,” Ms Leonard wrote.
“I am ashamed that our government is not doing more to speak up against this genocide, and even more that the Coalition supports Israel in its ‘right to defend itself’.
“The attack on Israel on 7 Oct by Hamas was tragic, and caused much pain and suffering to the Jewish community.
“But the UN and international bodies consider Netenyahu’s actions to have gone way past what is needed to ‘defend itself’. The loss of innocent lives has to stop”.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said if Climate 200 backed Teal candidates cannot restrain themselves from “insensitively vilifying Israel on the 7th of October they should just keep their thoughts to themselves”.
“Deb Leonard’s tokenistic denunciation of Hamas before moving on to the real purpose of viciously attacking the Jewish state is very revealing,” the Victorian Liberal Senator said.
“She clearly has no real desire to empathise with Australia’s Jewish community who are in mourning for the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.”
Ms Leonard, who owns a law firm, was endorsed by the Voices for Monash in late July.
Ms Leonard rejected the assertion that she was being insensitive or “tokenistically denouncing anything”, instead claiming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had breached human rights law.
“I empathise with all people affected by the horrific situation in Gaza and wish that more was being done to bring about a peaceful two-state solution,” she said.
Just half an hour before the start time of the vigil, the group was outnumbered by police and media as cold and wet weather set in.
A passenger in one car driving past screamed “free the hostages” as the event was being opened with a Welcome to Country.
An event invite on the groups Facebook page said the night was about honouring the “over 50,000 lives lost to the genocide of Gaza”.
“This event will include a memorial for Gaza’s victims,” the invite reads.
“It will include a program with moments of reflection, interfaith prayer, readings and the lighting of candles in honour of our people, our history, our culture and our land.”
Tasnim Sammak, a Palestinian woman and lecturer at Monash University, was the first official speaker at the vigil.
She spoke of the “genocide of her people by Israel” and how “their annihilation was happening, with no one trying to stop it”.
“The complete annihilation of Gaza is the plans of Netanyahu,” she said.
“They have destroyed every single hospital, every single school and every single university.
“But when we say arrest Netanyahu, we are the ones found guilty.”
Shorten urges Allan to consider protest permits
Bill Shorten has urged the Allan government to rethink its opposition to a protest permit system.
Premier Jacinta Allan last week resisted calls for a NSW-style permit system in response to October 7 rallies, saying police had the powers, tools and resources they needed to protect community safety.
But the Maribyrnong MP said there was “some merit in considering” the idea, adding “great cities of the world” have them and it didn’t stop people from protesting.
“It is working well in NSW, and perhaps it is time for Victoria to consider a permit system,” Mr Shorten told Sunrise.
“It doesn’t stop people protesting, but the purpose of it is looked at, the circumstances, how it’s done is taken before a Supreme Court.
“I don’t necessarily think it should apply to industrial relations, but for some of these protests we’ve seen week in, week out, I do think that having a permit system would at least straighten it up.”
Victoria Police’s pleas for a new permit system for protests were also shut down earlier this year by Ms Allan.
This is despite concerns about the growing number of violent rallies and the disruption they cause to the public and police resources.
The Australian Human Rights Law Centre has long opposed a permit system, warning it would potentially conflict with the right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly and association under Victoria’s charter of human rights.
Protests will go ahead in NSW today, after police and organisers reached an agreement permitting a rally before a Supreme Court decision was reached late last week.
Howard says October 7 time to show leadership
Former prime minister John Howard has taken aim at the Albanese government for failing to convey that Australia’s Jewish community “remains a treasured part of our nation” following the Hamas October 7 attack.
The Liberal stalwart declared the one-year anniversary of the terrible event was “a time to condemn the failure of the Prime Minister to show leadership on this issue”.
“The Hamas attack on Israel, a year ago today, was the greatest atrocity inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Mr Howard said.
“Notwithstanding the continued failure of the Albanese government, by its words and its deeds, to reflect this, Australia’s Jewish community should know that it remains a treasured part of our nation.
“It is a time to strengthen our opposition to anti-Semitism and further extend the hand of Australian mateship to Jewish Australians among us.”
Originally published as Shorten urges Allan government to consider protest permit over ‘week-in, week-out’ rallies
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