Is the Albanese government just completely clueless, or just utterly vile? (OK, OK, they’re not mutually exclusive.)
If actions speak louder than words, just consider the government’s actions over, not just the last year, but the last week. As Israel’s showdown with anti-Semitic terror group Hezbollah intensified, Foreign Minister Penny Wong took to the UN podium to demand that the world impose a two-state solution – something the Palestinians have violently demonstrated, time and time again, that they have absolutely no interest in.
The very day after ‘pro-Palestinian’ protesters illegally paraded the banned symbols of Hezbollah in Sydney and Melbourne – with the endorsement of the Greens – and called for the death of Jews, Labor announced the appointment of an ‘Islamophobia envoy’.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Despite the fact that publicly displaying the Hezbollah flag, and declaring allegiance to the death to Hezbollah, is a clear breach of the law, Labor is whistling and shuffling its feet.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says he could not “pre-judge” whether carrying a Hezbollah flag constituted grounds for a visa cancellation but said he held “very strong views against hate speech and hate symbols”.
So strong that he won’t ‘pre-judge’ carrying hate symbols. What a clown this idiot is.
He followed up his ‘very strong views’ with this masterpiece of using lots of words to say nothing at all:
“So we’ve sent the message, and we’ve done this before, to the different police forces, in this case NSW and Victoria, and just said that if anybody who they’re concerned about, if they can check their visa status as well, and if someone is on a visa, then that’ll come to us,” Mr Burke told ABC RN.
“We do have a higher standard in Australia if you’re on a visa as to what’s expected. If you’re on a visa in anyone’s country, you’re there as a guest. And the normal principles that might be there are where people will have arguments about freedom of speech when you’re a guest in someone’s country, you’re there as a guest, and inciting discord is a reason for me to refuse visas and a reason for me to cancel visas.”
As if to prove beyond all doubt how utterly clueless Labor is, Burke then offered up this jaw-dropper.
Mr Burke also said he doesn’t “understand the reason” for why memorial services were held for Nasrallah at several mosques in Sydney on Monday evening.
As for the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese couldn’t even bring himself to say the ‘H’ word.
The Prime Minister said: “We’ve seen worrying signs over the weekend. We do not want people to bring radical ideologies and conflict here. Our multiculturalism and social cohesion cannot be taken for granted.”
His comments […] did not specifically reference Hezbollah.
There’s a lot of that going around.
The ABC is fielding complaints from the Jewish community over its coverage of the Lebanon and Gaza solidarity protests, in which it is alleged to have interviewed supporters of Hezbollah without identifying it as a terrorist group.
The ABC is just following the BBC’s anti-Israel playbook.
Once again, the opposition at least have their moral compass firmly righted.
Peter Dutton blasted the government for the AFP’s failure to prosecute anyone for displaying terrorist symbols since the law was introduced in January.
“The laws do provide for an offence in that regard, and the law should be enforced,” the Opposition Leader said.
He declared it was an “outrage” that terrorist leaders were being glorified in Australian cities […]
NSW police were also monitoring Sydney mosques that held memorial services for slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday night.
There’s that ‘moderate majority’, again.
And, of course, police are worse than useless.
The Australian can reveal that a Jewish man in Sydney has reported protesters to police after alleging he was subjected to anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs by men with Hezbollah paraphernalia, and that one protester threw his phone on nearby tramtracks.
Adam Lippmann, 38, said that when he approached nearby police and said “I’ve got photos, I’ve got audio, I’ve just been assaulted”, they told him they couldn’t help because “we’re here for the protest”. When he questioned them, they said “We’re here to ensure it’s a peaceful protest”.
So, while Hezbollah and Hamas symbols are paraded by thousands, every week, police do nothing.
Just two people have been charged under the hate-symbols laws introduced in January. Both involved Nazi symbols, rather than those of terrorist organisations such as Hamas or Hezbollah.
Because a handful of dickhead edgelords doing Nazi salutes is the real problem.