Victoria Police
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:01): (329) My question is to the Attorney-General. Attorney, in reports today Victoria Police deputy commissioner Neil Paterson acknowledged that Victoria Police has no power to act on many antisemitic behaviours at anti-Israel protests and more broadly in the community. Community leaders have expressed fundamental concern at the approach, with one saying that:
… we should not wait for someone to be violently beaten or killed before police officers step in …
Does the Attorney believe that police have sufficient powers to keep the community safe?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:02): I thank Ms Crozier for her question, bearing in mind I think that the end of it was asking me for an opinion. But I am more than happy to have a conversation in relation to the issues that you have raised. I think the way you have phrased it is not necessarily the way that accurately reflects exactly the conversation that has been happening, but nonetheless your question stands.
Police powers in relation to dealing with community safety are strong. They have a range of options in relation to responding to inappropriate behaviour by a range of charges. It is very difficult in a protest environment, a rally environment, when your number one priority is to keep the community safe, to respond to perhaps an individual unless that individual is a major threat to community at the time. If you listen to the way police describe this, that is why they do not just rely on real-time responses to criminal activity. They can review CCTV, they can respond to complaints made by witnesses and they can conduct investigations after the event. It is very important that police, in a situation where there are a lot of people, are focused on the people that are in attendance and are part of a gathering or are people that just happen to be in the vicinity.
When it comes to a range of legal responses to inappropriate behaviour, such as a lot of the topics that we discuss in here regularly, we have just passed legislation, last sitting week, in relation to the Nazi salute, we have also passed legislation in relation to a range of Nazi hate symbols and we are undertaking further work to strengthen our anti-vilification laws, which will pick up some of the issues that you have posed in your question. That work is underway. It is incredibly complex crafting laws that respond to inappropriate behaviour in the community. It is also important that we have a community response and people call out that poor behaviour when they see it.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:04): Attorney, thank you for that response. Recently two dozen neo-Nazis wearing balaclavas and dressed head to toe in black boarded a train. They started intimidating passengers and even attempted to single out one they believed may have been Jewish. Again, Victoria Police had no power to act. So the question is, Attorney: have you met with the Chief Commissioner of Police to discuss those options that you mentioned or whether there needs to be a reintroduction of the move-on laws to ensure that all Victorians can be kept safe?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:05): Ms Crozier, you are conflating a number of issues. It is complex legal policy that we are undertaking in relation to updating the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act and looking at hate speech, incitement and those issues. In relation to move-on powers, police have a range of powers already under that framework, particularly where community safety is at risk. I meet regularly with the police commissioner. In my role as Attorney I have jurisdiction, I guess, over the majority of their powers, and that is something that I am in continual conversations about. So I think the answer to your question is yes, because it is part of the development of our anti-vilification legal framework that is well underway, and I would be very happy to brief you in relation to how that is going. I met with members of a mosque just this morning to give them an update in relation to the development of those laws, and I am more than happy to make myself available to other interested parties.