‘Deport them’: Peter Dutton lashes Palestinian protesters

Australia’s domestic spy agency has warned that “words matter” as the Liberal leader Peter Dutton erupted over pro-Palestine rallies.

Australia’s domestic spy agency ASIO has warned that “words matter” and can inflame community tensions as the Liberal leader Peter Dutton calls for protestors to be “deported” over pro-Palestine rallies.

In a dramatic escalation of rhetoric, Mr Dutton said those who chanted anti-Semitic slogans should be thrown out of Australia.

Calling on the Prime Minister to cancel the visas of those who appeared to support Hamas, Mr Dutton slammed the protesters as unAustralian.

He also appeared to concede he had no direct evidence that those chanting the slogans were on temporary visas or in fact Australian citizens.

“If there were people there who were on visas, they should be identified and have their visas cancelled. They should be deported,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

The rally began as a peaceful march from Town Hall but escalated as protesters faced off with over 100 cops Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

It comes as Mike Burgess, the Director-General of Security at ASIO warned that while the spy agency is not targeting lawful protest, it remains concerned about “the small subset of protesters who may wish to escalate protest to violence.”

ASIO said this includes “religiously motivated and ideologically motivated extremists.”

For now, ASIO said that Australia’s terror alert level remained unchanged.

“The tragic events in the Middle East are resonating in the Australian community, however the national terrorism threat level remains possible,’’ he said.

“Protests, rallies and associated activities are expected to continue, and are likely to feature strong emotive claims.

“I remain concerned about the potential for opportunistic violence with little or no warning.

Mr Dutton’s strong reaction to the protestors was slammed by pro-Palestinan Australians on social media by Twitter users including @amalfalastini.

“Peter Dutton calls for the deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters on 2GB,’’ she said.

“This is racial incitement and he is actively creating an unsafe community as we saw in the lead up to the Cronulla riots.”

He has also accused ministers ‘within the Labor Party’ of ‘inherent bias’.

“If they were non-citizens, and the police should be doing this now, then their visas should be before the minister, and on character grounds they should have their visas cancelled,’ he said.

“I don’t even know if that work is being done by the Albanese government. This is the frustration... you couldn’t be assured that that process was being considered.”

The NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley is facing calls to be sacked over her handling of Monday night’s chaos, in which protesters stormed the Sydney Opera House forecourt while chanting anti-Semitic phrases.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman questioned why Ms Catley didn’t “probe” police to cancel Monday’s protests, or work with community leaders, or advise people to not attend the rally.

“We ask the Premier to replace the current minister with someone who is up to the job,” he said.

“There’s no evidence she even asked the police to stop it happening or asked why it couldn’t happen.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton. Picture: AFP

“When we’ve got a threat of increased tension around the world, (and) increased community tensions here, you need a minister who is at the top of her job and this minister, I regret to say, is not.”

Mr Dutton suggested that the Sydney protests where some attendees reportedly shouted “F*ck the Jews” would “go down in our country’s history” for all the wrong reasons.

“They should be apologetic to the Jewish community for it, the scenes we saw at the Opera House will be scenes which go down in our country’s history, I don’t think we should underestimate how significantly they’ve been interpreted overseas,’’ he said.

“I don’t want people anywhere in the world to think those scenes represent who we are as a people.”

Mr Dutton condemned the NSW Police’s decision to allow the protest to go ahead as a “shocking mistake”.