Nationals senator Matt Canavan has called the government’s response to rising antisemitism in Australia a “failure” following the spraying of pro-Hamas graffiti on a billboard in Fitzroy yesterday.
“The government just haven’t picked up on it from day one to stamp out this reprehensible incitement to violence, and that’s what these statements are. They are against the law, and the law should have been used. But right from the get-go, when we saw those current protests on the steps of the Sydney Opera House two years ago, both federal and state governments have failed to implement the law, and that has effectively given a green light to violent terrorist supporters within our midst.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“And we’ve seen this kind of response grow, and it’s culminated here in this, this just reprehensible graffiti. So the government has failed here, like hardly anyone has ever been charged with these crimes… Where is the government response here to find these people who have done this, charge them and set an example?” Canavan said on Nine’s Today Show this morning.
Canavan also hit out at pro-Palestine protesters planning to demonstrate at the Opera House this weekend.
“I don’t think we should let our national landmarks be used in this fashion, used by people who, as I’ve said, have been promoting or at least excusing terrorist acts,” he said.
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