Wednesday, 18 June 2025

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (10:04): At 3 am on Sunday 1 June a group of white supremacists posed outside Northland shopping centre with a horrifically racist banner. I understand that Northland security could not see the wording of that banner from their control room, but they called the police, and police commenced an investigation immediately on the Sunday morning as soon as the details became clear. The mainstream media have chosen largely not to cover this incident, and as members here might know, they have also chosen not to cover a similar incident this week and indeed an incident that happened here on the steps of Parliament with an antisemitic banner last year. I understand from talking to journalists that they are trying to draw a genuine line between reporting the news and not giving publicity to what are very obviously stunts designed to draw attention to the far-right cause. But on the other hand, the first goal of our government’s anti-racism strategy is to ensure that racism is always recognised, challenged and rejected, so we have spoken to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs about possible further discussions around that tension between calling out racism and not wanting to platform it and how we best ensure that Victorians from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds feel safe and supported in their workplaces, homes and communities.