In a press conference hours after the US shooting on Sunday, Albanese expressed his shock and called the incident an “attack on the democratic values that Australians and Americans share”.
In response to a question about the safety of Australian MPs, Albanese said: “I’ve expressed my concern that people who just dismiss actions outside electorate offices, these things can escalate, which is why they need to be called out unequivocally, and opposed.
“Peaceful demonstrations are fine. Some of the incidents that we’ve seen certainly are not. They’ve crossed the line.”
The St Kilda office of MP Josh Burns was vandalised with anti-Zionist graffiti.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The prime minister did not directly reference the Greens, whom MPs across the political spectrum have criticsed in recent months for either supporting or failing to criticise the actions of demonstrators.
Activists have protested outside MPs’ offices, spray-painted sites such as the War Memorial, and this month breached security to unfurl pro-Palestine and other banners from the roof of Parliament House. The most serious damage was at Labor MP Josh Burns’ Melbourne office, where windows were smashed and vandals lit fires.
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Speaking on ABC Radio on Monday, Albanese said: “Look, I think we need to be very, very careful to draw a distinction between what is a violent act that we saw, for example, outside Josh Burns’ electorate office where that was very dangerous to light a fire. People live above that electorate office. The intimidation that’s occurred has not been good, but I don’t think we should draw a straight line between that and what we saw in the United States yesterday – [that] was, of course, a very different level. But it is a reminder.”
In a fiery speech on Monday night, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill directly identified the demonstrations outside MPs’ offices as a threat to social cohesion.
“Denying access to government services, terrorising politicians and their staff, painting symbols of terrorism in public spaces, smashing windows, setting buildings alight. These are the measures of autocrats, despots and tyrants. They have no place in our democracy,” she said at the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra.
After the attack on Burns’ office, Bandt said violence had no place in the community and the vandalism and damage were “completely unacceptable”.
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Reaffirming his criticism of the vandalism on Monday, Bandt said: “The Greens are a party of peace and non-violence, and where violence to people and property has occurred, such as at electorate offices, the Greens have condemned it, and every member of the public should be able to access their MPs’ offices as well.
“The vast majority of protests are in peaceful opposition to the genocide in Gaza. There is a genocide under way. People want Labor to take action to pressure the extremist Netanyahu government to stop the invasion. If people do that peacefully, as they are overwhelmingly doing, they should be heard, not vilified.”
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