The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to answer questions about a pro-Palestine protest outside his electorate office that’s been going on for weeks, as the same organisers interrupted Question Time on Monday.
The 24-hour sit-in outside Anthony Albanese’s office in Sydney’s Marrickville began on February 11, and since then hundreds of people have showed up to take part, according to organisers.
“People are here at all hours of the day … it’s been a very peaceful event, it’s been a community event”, Palestinian community organiser Fahad Ali, 30, told Crikey.
The organisers have taken their protest to Canberra too — a group that interrupted question time in Parliament on Monday were linked to the Marrickville sit-in. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was interrupted by shouts of “ceasefire now” while he was attempting to answer a question, before the protesters were removed by security, SBS News reported.
“For five months we’ve protested [Albanese’s] complicity in this genocide. For five weeks we’ve stood at his door. On the sixth week, we decided to wait no more,” protester Emad Al Hatu told Crikey.
“Actions have consequences. The hypocrisy of this prime minister has united his constituents. His silence only escalates the civil unrest. We take action where he stands in silence.”
Crikey first sought comment from the prime minister’s media team on March 11 and didn’t hear anything back for seven days, despite repeated phone calls and emails.
On Monday, when a spokesperson finally did respond to the inquiry, they declined to make any comments on the record. Crikey had sent a list of questions, asking whether anyone from the prime minister’s staff had met with the protesters; what Albanese’s thoughts were about the sit-in; whether he’d been in the electorate office since it began; and whether the protest had disrupted the prime minister’s work in any way.
The activists say they, too, have been met with silence from Albanese’s office.
“There has been no response from Albanese’s office to any of our inquiries, they’ve made no attempt to engage with us or to meet with us,” Ali said.
“We’re going to be here, at a bare minimum, until Albo meets with us. It’s as simple as that — meet with the community, meet with your own constituents.”
Crikey has visited the sit-in multiple times over the past few weeks and seen protesters present at all hours of the day. Typically, in the daytime, a handful of people will be sitting in camping chairs on the sidewalk, beside an improvised mural of flyers and posters and a table of snacks and water. At times, the crowd has swelled to many times that size, including last Friday when protesters staged a “die-in” on the sidewalk, lying down in a heap to represent Palestinian victims of the conflict with Israel.
According to organisers, about 700 volunteers have signed up for a roster to make sure the sidewalk is never empty — two to three people at least are always present, day and night.
Kos Samaras, a former Labor strategist and director of polling firm Redbridge, said that a sustained movement pressuring Labor on the Gaza conflict may impact the government’s results at the next federal election.
“It will cost Labor something — it may cost them a seat or two versus the Greens, and it may cost them primary votes in safer seats,” Samaras told Crikey. “It may create more of an opportunity for independents like Dai Le to be elected in safe Labor seats.”
“The Muslim community obviously feels quite passionate about this issue, and I wouldn’t dismiss the potential impact that might have in creating a Fowler-type result.”
Albanese has repeatedly said his government has a “consistent position” on the Israeli war in Gaza, which has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry reported by the Associated Press.
“[Our joint statements with Canada and New Zealand] have condemned the terrorist act by Hamas on October 7. They’ve called for the release of hostages. They’ve called for a sustainable ceasefire,” Albanese told reporters last Wednesday.
“They’ve called for humanitarian assistance to be able to be delivered to the people of Gaza. They have called for a long-term political solution in which you have a two-state solution, is what is required.
“We’ll continue to look at avenues for further humanitarian support for the people of Gaza, who are suffering terribly. And we’ll continue to say that innocent lives, too many have been lost, both Israeli and Palestinian.”
Protest organisers say they want Australia to provide consular support for Palestinian families in the warzone, humanitarian visas to be provided to Palestinians arriving in Australia, and an unconditional ceasefire, among other demands.
Thats because everyone is afraid of the power of the Israel lobby to ruin careers and reputations through virulent (though false) claims of antisemitism and holocaust disrespect by anyone who thinks Israel’s genocide in Palestine is in any way connected with these concepts. Israel wants a free pass to continue their much greater atrocity, when compared with the Hamas terrorism & murders. They are erasing a people, who were once peaceful, from their own lands – and we help supply the bullets. Shame on Australia.
Australia’s complicity in these atrocities is unambiguous. That Albanese and Wong, despite the cost to the Palestinians, continue to repeat the US talking points they are given, is reprehensible.
The ALP should wear the cost of these shameful decisions at the next federal election.
Just when you thought Albanese couldn’t be more disappointing he outdoes himself.
His government’s “consistent position” is problematic to say the least. Alone the fact that he says there are too many dead on both sides, but only condemns those responsible for the deaths on one side and not those who killed many more people on the other side…
So is the loss of life on both sides equally terrible or not?
The Palestinian people suffer terribly, but not terribly enough for the government to take decisive action. That statement is not decisive action. It’s just some weasel words designed to appear to care. That meaningless phrase ‘sustainable ceasefire’ that entered the political vocabulary a few months back is a prime example. Oh, I’m sorry, it’s not meaningless. What it means is Hamas has to do as told. In exchange the other side has to do… nothing. No need to release the thousands of Palestinians held (and reportedly mistreated) in Israeli jails without charges; no end to regular violent incursions into Gaza; no end to settler violence; no end to apartheid; no end to mowing the grass. So basically we’ll return to the status quo pre 7 October and the world (the ‘leadership’) continues to indulge Israel and ignore Palestinian plight.
Albanese’s government took decisive action just once: when it suspended the funding to UNRWA based on unproven accusations by an entity that has lied previously and repeatedly. It didn’t spring to action in the same way when reports surfaced that confessions have been obtained via torture. Just another example of the consistently one-sided “consistent position”. To be fair, most other Western governments are not better. They all “continue to look at avenues for further humanitarian support for the people of Gaza”. Interestingly, it doesn’t occur to them to say’ stop this or we’ll withdraw our support’. It doesn’t occur to them to demand the trucks are let through. It doesn’t occur to them to demand stop to the bombings and destruction or else. They could do it, but they don’t. Because they have a “consistent position”.
Btw – according to experts in international law what Hamas did is not ‘terrorism’ as occupied people have a right to fight their occupier. And Israel as occupying power has no right to self-defence against the people it occupies. The fact that the occupied territories are called ‘occupied territories’ shows that we know this. It’s just an inconvenient truth.
Desmond Tutu once said “Our humanity is bound up with theirs, for we can only be human together.
Whatever is currently happening to humanity, is happening to all of us. No matter how far off the screams of pain and terror, we live in one world.”
I don’t know how we will recover from this.
Western governments can’t demand a stop to the violence, not without really pissing off Uncle Sam.
While a boondoggle like USUKA remains on the table despite all the evidence that it’s an incredibly bad idea, our ‘leaders’ will of course continue to support Israel to the hilt, despite all the evidence that’s an incredibly bad idea.
If anyone’s wondering why the US is so keen to look after a nasty bit of work like Israel, ask yourself if Israel would even be a thing, if there was no oil in the middle east… All that Evangelical rapture hokum is a post facto embellishment.
How about the child prisoner hostages in administrative detention with no charges in Israeli jails – a practice that has been going on continuously long before Oct 7? Why are they being ignored in the hostage deal. Is it only Israeli lives that matter to Albo and Wong? Obviously
Anthony Albanese’s past appearances at pro-Palestine rallies, using a hand help microphone, passionately condeming Israel’s “occupation” and slaughter of Palestinian people, says it all really!!
Anthony Hypocrisy? – devoid of any integrity and moral conviction!!
I think Anthony Albanese has been giving just about everyone the quiet treatment. Something he no doubt learned in the bitter, nasty, self-indulgent, back-biting word of Sydney University student politics.