Violent protests in Melbourne expose Greens as hate-peddlers, hypocrites and cowards
We have seen the violent and virulent hatred of the Greens and professional protest movement laid bare, as anti-Israel protesters – parading as pacifists – viciously attacked law enforcement in a week-long campaign of antisemitism, Andrew Wallace writes.
Opinion
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In Melbourne we have seen the violent and virulent hatred of the Greens and professional protest movement laid bare, as anti-Israel protesters – parading as pacifists – viciously attacked law enforcement in a week-long campaign of antisemitism.
As defence industry suppliers, policymakers, and agencies wrap-up the annual LANDFORCES conference and exhibition, extremists from the political left and right have converged on Melbourne to, in their own words “disrupt” and “demilitarise”.
In reality, we have the same Greens activists and elected officials, neo-Nazis, Hamas apologists, and ill-informed student protesters that we have seen blockading our university campuses, marching in the streets, and spreading hate online.
Egregiously but unsurprisingly, they are being whipped into a frenzy by the likes of Greens Veterans and Defence Spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge and senior Victorian Greens MP, Gabrielle De Vietri – unmasking once again the radical, destructive, and dangerous agenda of the Australian Greens.
They say they want peace, but chant terror slogans. They say they want harmony, but they march alongside neo-Nazis and terror apologists. They say they want to bring the country together, but they spend every waking moment in race-based protest and division. They say they are environmentalists, but they burn plastic rubbish bins. They say they are animal activists, but they throw acid on police horses. Does that sound like a peaceful, pacifist protest?
It’s the abuse of the Australian Aboriginal flag, in an effort to draw false equivalencies, which demonstrates the utter hypocrisy and disingenuous character of the Greens movement.
The conflation of the two issues and the use of the flag has been widely condemned by Indigenous leaders including former Senator Nova Peris OAM who said, “I’m saddened to see our sacred flag, which I fought so hard to be returned to the Aboriginal community, misappropriated by anti-Israel and anti-Jewish groups.”
“Who gave them permission … I championed the cause to free the Aboriginal flag, I became the face of that cause. I didn’t help free it to see it hijacked.”
Australia is confronting the most geopolitically unstable period since World War II, with instability in our region – fuelled by dictators and terrorists across East Asia and the Middle East – threatening our economic and national security.
We depend on the men and women of the Australian Defence Force to safeguard our nation in the face of greyzone confrontation and looming conflict.
They are equipped by a sovereign defence industry which is innovative, aspirational, and resilient – and which is already contending with Labor’s cost of living crisis and inertia in defence investment and decision-making.
To attack first responders and put defence personnel and suppliers in harm’s way, in the week that the Veteran Suicide Royal Commission Report is handed down, no less – is shameful, gutless, and unbefitting of elected parliamentarians.
The Greens must cease their support for and condemn unequivocally these violent protests.
They must condemn Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran for the October 7 attacks, ongoing torture and hostage captivity.
And they must hold their elected members to account for their complicity in spreading the infection of antisemitism and hate.
Australians expect nothing less.
Andrew Wallace MP is the Deputy Chair of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee and Defence Subcommittee, and Chair of the Australia-Israeli Allies Caucus.
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Originally published as Violent protests in Melbourne expose Greens as hate-peddlers, hypocrites and cowards
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