Greens senator David Shoebridge has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of inviting clashes between police and protesters in the streets of Sydney, saying his rhetoric had “delivered violence on the street” and encouraged police into altercations with protesters.
“The prime minister can say he supports the right to protest, but he’s part of a political movement that has been demonising protesters, seeking to conflate, falsely conflate, hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians who have been demonstrating against the genocide with the hateful, hateful violence from two violent men whose ideology has no connection with the free Palestine movement,” Shoebridge said in reference to the Bondi shooters.
Senator David Shoebridge during a doorstop interview in the press gallery at Parliament House this morning. Alex Ellinghausen
“We’ve seen Prime Minister Albanese repeatedly attack protesters using words, and now those words have actually delivered violence on the street in the form of police brutality,” Shoebridge claimed.
He said the prime minister needed “to be held account for his words and his demonising of protesters, his appalling political demonising of protesters because his words matter, and his words are part of the reason the police felt able to deliver that level of violence on the streets of Sydney.”
Shoebridge told journalists at Parliament House that Albanese “should apologise to the people of Australia for inviting that conflict onto the streets. He should make it clear in his words and his actions that he condemns the violence being delivered by another Labor leader, [Premier] Chris Minns in Sydney.”
Protesters and police clash near Sydney’s Town Hall last night. Wolter Peeters
Shoebridge said staff from his office were present at the protest and were “appalled” by what they saw.
“There are images of packs of police charging through the city looking for people to pull to the ground, to tackle to the ground and to violently arrest. Who created that violence on the streets of Sydney last night? Prime Minister Albanese and Premier Chris Minns.”
Asked this morning how he felt to see the images of police and protesters clashing, Albanese said: “Oh, look, I’m devastated by it.
“These are really scenes that I think shouldn’t be taking place. People should be able to express their views peacefully, but the police were very clear about the routes that were required if people wanted to march to go a particular route and to ensure that this was done peacefully”.