Anthony Albanese says protests should be banned outside places of worship like synagogues and churches, claiming such demonstrations cause “division”.
The prime minister gave his strongest denunciation yet of antisemitism on Wednesday following anti-Israel vandalism in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, saying the “horrific” acts of recent days diminished Australia as a nation.
Albanese committed $8.5m in new funding to the Sydney Jewish Museum to upgrade educational resources on the Holocaust and called on politicians and the community to unite to address antisemitism instead of “looking for distinction and for difference”.
The prime minister rebuffed claims that his federal government had been slow to respond to the Melbourne synagogue arson and the rising tide of anti-Israel hate, and said he would back state governments banning protests outside places of worship – a stance quickly criticised by civil liberties groups.
“I certainly support the banning of demonstrations outside any place of worship. I cannot conceive of any reason, apart from creating division in our community, of why someone would want to hold a demonstration outside a place of worship,” Albanese said in a press conference at the Jewish Museum.
“For people to demonstrate outside a place of worship is a provocative act which undermines whatever the cause may be that people are purporting to advance, because it completely alienates people who adopt a bit of common sense.”
Albanese was joined by Labor colleague Tanya Plibersek and Wentworth MP Allegra Spender at the museum to pledge funding towards the Centre of Jewish Life and Tolerance. The suburb of Woollahra – where cars and buildings were vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti – is in Spender’s electorate.
Spender said local Jewish community members believed greater education about antisemitism was key to addressing the issue. She recounted the story of a student who was wearinga Jewish school uniform and who was harassed by passengers in a passing car who allegedly performed a Nazi salute.
Albanese called for the perpetrators of antisemitic conduct to be brought to justice, claiming recent events had been “aimed at promoting fear in the community, and that, by any definition, is what terrorism is about”.
Some Jewish groups, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, had urged Albanese to encourage state governments to enforce laws restricting protests around religious schools or buildings, or to enact new laws where they did not exist.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said on Sunday his government would consider “urgent” reforms to regulate protests outside religious institutions and places of worship. Albanese said he backed that move.
“Whether it’s a great synagogue, a cathedral, a mosque, it’s completely unacceptable … we need to respect people’s faith,” he said.
“There were demonstrations outside St Mary’s Cathedral,” he said, appearing to reference protests outside St Mary’s Cathedral where George Pell’s funeral service was held last year. “I think they were incredibly disrespectful when they occurred.
“But more recently, what we’ve seen is people [outside] the Great Synagogue … why would you do that? I mean, what is in people’s heads?
“I know Premier Minns has made comments about this, and I certainly support his view.”
Pressed further, Albanese said any such law changes would occur on the state level, not federal, but that he would “certainly” support premiers making such moves.
“I very much support people’s right to demonstrate peacefully and go to a park, there’s lots of squares that they can go to,” he said.
Timothy Roberts, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said it was concerning that political leaders were offering “kneejerk reactions” to some negative media coverage instead of providing “measured leadership”.
“With all due respect [Albanese] hasn’t given this a moment’s thought,” he said. “The prime minister’s comments do not reflect what are often a highly complex issues that intersect with power.”
Roberts pointed to places of worship outside significant civic institutions – including Sydney Town Hall – which were regular sites of public protests as one practical issue with the proposed ban.
He said places of worship were also houses of “political power” – pointing to high-profile leaders that had been platformed to speak on divisive issues at churches, as well as the displaying of ribbons commemorating abuse survivors on Catholic church facades.
“If someone’s protesting out the front of a small synagogue, we may have questions why they’re doing that and should be concerned. But that’s what we do as a community – what we don’t do is legislate against it.”
