Violent Protests

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (15:05): I seek leave to give a brief explanation before asking questions of the Attorney-General regarding violent and hate-fuelled protests.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: On Wednesday 13 September, a protest against the Land Forces expo in Melbourne immediately turned violent and resulted in dozens of arrests for various offences, including assault on police, throwing acid, arson and blocking roadways. Additionally, local articles reported a Neo-Nazi march in the Adelaide CBD holding a banner stating 'Australia for the white man'. It is something the Attorney has rightly condemned. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. What monitoring is in place to predict violent and hate-fuelled protests here in South Australia?

2. What measures from a legislative point of view are in place to prevent violent protests such as what took place in Melbourne from occurring here in South Australia?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for her question. These are very important issues. I think everybody expects to be able to go about their daily lives safely and freely. I think what we saw in Melbourne was very unfortunate. It caused such a disturbance and created potential risks—and potentially serious risks—to the safety and lives of people in that city.

The honourable member referred to some of the extreme elements we see in protests and discourse in this state, particularly those that involve elements of hate. The honourable member is right: I have condemned, and I will continue to condemn, such intolerances that promote hate and division in the community.

There was a recent incident of that sort of hate in Adelaide. I have referred and asked the police for some advice about the particular symbolism that was used in that particular incident in Adelaide, because of course there is, under the legislation this parliament has passed outlawing and creating a criminal sanction against the use of the Nazi symbols, the ability by regulation to prescribe further things on from the Hakenkreuz, the Nazi Germany hijacking of the symbol that had been used for centuries—the swastika by many faiths. If the advice comes back that that ought to be included as a hate symbol in that banning of Nazi symbols, that is something we of course absolutely will do.

I won't go into a lot of detail, but I think we can all rest assured—and I have indicated to the chamber before—that there is quite a lot of cooperation that goes on between federal authorities and state authorities in relation to this sort of extremism. I know that the authorities, together, do a lot of work, a lot of intelligence gathering, to try to prevent some of what we see and rightly condemn.