Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Wong today relating to violence.

I rise to take note of the answer given by Senator Birmingham to the question asked by Senator Wong in relation to why government senators voted against a motion calling on political leaders to condemn, without qualification, recent examples of violent extremism directed at health workers and other groups. Unlike too many senators opposite, Labor does not engage in fantasy politics. We're not trying to nod and wink to those who see a deep-state conspiracy behind every public health measure. We're not playing footsy under the table with peddlers of quack remedies and vicious lies. While all Victorians struggled with lockdown—and I did too—despaired at the lack of connection and worried deeply about the impact of what needed to be done, not many felt the need to attack and urinate on the Shrine of Remembrance. And, fortunately, not many Liberal senators felt the need to adopt the unthinking, dangerous formulation that Senator Henderson chose to.

In September this year, in my home city of Melbourne, just metres away from the COVID wards of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, we saw an ugly, thuggish mob, having just stripped the Bunnings shelves bare of high-vis in an attempt to cosplay as construction workers, set itself upon the West Melbourne headquarters of the CFMEU. Union officials were punched and kicked and attacked with makeshift weapons. A dog was brutally kicked, and I thank the RSPCA for identifying and charging the putrid individual responsible. The union secretary had full beer bottles thrown at his head by some in the mob. Make no mistake: a full beer bottle thrown at a person's head is a prospectively lethal weapon. It is a miracle no-one was killed. But this is the context in which Senator Henderson felt it appropriate to tweet:

I condemn these violent protests but I understand why so many workers are turning against the @DanielAndrewsMP Govt.

She said, 'I condemn these violent protests but …'

If violent protesters had thrown full beer bottles at her office and the people working in her office, I would have condemned it as an act of terrorism. I would have demanded that those involved be brought to justice. I would not have indulged in social-worker-type excuse-manufacturing exploring the origin of their rage. Terrorism is terrorism, and I refer to the definition of 'terrorism' in the ASIO Act:

… acts or threats of violence or unlawful harm that are intended or likely to achieve a political objective, whether in Australia or elsewhere, including acts or threats carried on for the purpose of influencing the policy or acts of a government, whether in Australia or elsewhere …

Terrorist acts and related offences are further defined in the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995. Senator Henderson demanded I apologise for calling out her shameful 'I condemn violence but' tweet—not in one tweet in response but in about 20, but that is Senator Henderson for us. Well, I will never apologise to an apologist for those who quite literally urinate on the memory of our fallen soldiers. Protest is a vital part of democracy. When it is respectful, peaceful and passionate it can be a powerful force for moving public debate. But you will never catch me making excuses for violent protesters or rioters—not for the Black Lives Matter protesters who set fire to a police union office in Philadelphia, not for unironically violent protests that sometimes gather to oppose Australian military interventions regardless of mission, not for any unionist in any situation. Every party represented in this chamber that helps make the laws that shape our nation must fundamentally respect the rule of law and the laws themselves. In a democracy there is no excusing those who indulge in violence to advance their cause or to oppose another.

I will finish by saying that Labor and I will never sit back and say nothing in the face of violence and intimidation in our cities and in our communities. We will not, like some of those opposite, walk on the edge of a razor and talk out of both sides of our mouths in a attempt to pry off a few votes, while our nurses and healthcare workers—the literal heroes of this pandemic—cannot walk proud, holding their heads high, through their own streets without fearing that they will be attacked by those so far down the rabbit hole that I fear they are beyond redemption.