Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I returned to Australia a few hours ago, to be told that during my absence a protest was held within my electorate, in the suburb of Lakemba. The group that organised that, I understand, is a group which I have a long history of having differences of opinion with and often quite heated arguments with. I do not want to go to that in the time available; I want to go to the location of the protest. The location chosen for conducting the protest was a war memorial within the suburb of Lakemba. I want to take this opportunity, at the first available instance, to say how unacceptable that is. For generations of people, war memorials in suburban areas are the same as cemeteries to families and relatives and communities. The people of Lakemba are a fine community, a great, strong, multicultural community. The people who organised that particular protest, many of whom had travelled some distance to be there, should never again consider using a war memorial site for any form of political activity.