Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has “dropped the ball” after giving a “weak” response to pro-Palestine activists who hung banners from the roof of Parliament House for more than an hour-and-a-half, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said.
The banners used the controversial phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “no peace on stolen land”, alongside the phrase “war Crimes enabled here” on a banner under the Australian Coat of Arms.
In light of the incident, Mr Dutton and Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham penned an urgent letter to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Penny Wong arguing the demonstration was “designed to inflict fear and instil chaos in Australia’s society”.
Mr Albanese did not publicly address the demonstration until Question Time, more than two-and-a-half hours after the protesters had gotten down from the building at 11:30am.
Speaking with Sky News Australia’s Peta Credlin, Mr Dutton lambasted the Prime Minister’s response, claiming he made a “serious error of judgement”.
“I think the PM’s dropped the ball here,” he said.
“I think it was a very serious breach of security and to have your parliament used with that sort of propaganda is a surrender of our parliament (and) of our democracy.
“The Prime Minister has made a serious error of judgement here.”
The Opposition Leader continued to revile the Prime Minister as he pointed to a broader culture of inaction by authorities which he claimed was influenced by the government.
“The government’s created this culture where the direction – obviously coming from the minister – is that the police stand back and just keep the peace and allow people to protest,” he said.
Mr Albanese’s attitudes towards these issues of security, the Opposition Leader argued, were “passive acceptance” which Australians have seen in university encampments and towards vandalised MPs’ offices.
“It’s a passive approach to a very serious situation with dire consequences and it’s creating social disharmony in our country,” he said.
“The Jewish communities is living in a real state of fear – and understandably so – and the prime minister just leisurely sort of takes his time.
“I just can’t imagine that John Howard or Bob Hawke or Tony Abbott would have reacted in such a weak way.”
The Prime Minister finally spoke out on the actions of the protesters at Question Time where he said “they should face the full force of the law.”
Mr Dutton’s impassioned comments come after he questioned how Parliament House, which underwent a $126.7m security upgrade in 2017, could be breached in his letter to the Prime Minister and Ms Wong.
He also urged the government to hold these protesters, who could face a maximum fine of $2750 under their Commonwealth Trespass charges, to account.
“Despite significant government expenditure on upgrading the security of Parliament House, these protestors managed to gain access to the exterior of the building with apparent ease and remained there for a considerable duration,” Mr Dutton and Mr Birmingham wrote.
“The opposition urgently calls upon the government and presiding officers to take immediate and decisive action to hold these protestors to account and conduct a thorough investigation into this security lapse.”
Security experts have offered a specialist insight into how four pro-Palestine protestors managed to climb on the roof of Parliament House on Thursday morning despite the “immense security budget”.
Lincoln Parker, the former chair of the Liberal Party’s defence and national security policy branch, told SkyNews.com.au the security breach was a reflection of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approach to national security.
“With an immense security budget it is particularly troubling that such a significant security breach occurred when we expect our Prime Minister to at least be able to manage simple security procedures – especially the heart of our democracy,” he said.