Dutton clashes with ABC reporter over Hezbollah
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused the ABC of failing to support laws about terrorist organisations in a public clash with a journalist over Hezbollah and Israel.
Dutton responded to ABC journalist Anushri Sood after she asked him on Tuesday what determined Iranian-backed Hezbollah being listed by Australia as a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, thousands marched in capital cities across Australia to protest Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza and bombing of Lebanon, with police investigations underway after some marchers carried the Hezbollah flag and photos of its killed leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In a tense exchange, Dutton asked Sood where she worked. When she replied “ABC”, Dutton said he didn’t understand her question.
“You asked about the listing of the organisation, I just didn’t understand that question, sorry. This is a question from Canberra, is it?” he said.
Sood asked him to explain how it was determined a group would be listed as a terrorist organisation.
“With Hezbollah, you’re saying being responsible for the deaths of women and children; groups have commented on the hypocrisy of that situation because there are no bans currently on Israeli flags being raised, despite 45,000 people dying at the hands of the Israeli government,” she said.
In reply, Dutton said Israel was a democracy and unleashed on the national broadcaster.
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“I had presumed, up until this point at least, that the ABC supported the government’s laws and the government has passed laws, supported on a bipartisan basis. But not by the ABC it seems, in relation to the proscribing or the listing of a terrorist organisation,” he said.
“Hezbollah under Australian law is a listed terrorist organisation.
“Now if the ABC doesn’t support that, they should be very clear about it because I think that’s quite a departure.
“But you asked me why our country has listed Hezbollah. They’re a terrorist organisation, they organise terrorist attacks – and if that is not clear to the ABC, then I think the ABC is in greater trouble than even I first imagined.”
Jewish Australians have also called out the use of the listed terror group’s iconography and photos glorifying Nasrallah.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-leader Alex Ryvchin said it was “sickening to see fellow Australians on our streets mourning the death of this terrorist kingpin”.
The protests went beyond concerns about the loss of life and future of Lebanon and veered into “active, open, specific support for Hezbollah” which police needed to take action against, Ryvchin said on Monday.
The Islamic Council of Victoria blamed a small number of people for the Hezbollah flags, saying the community’s focus was on the escalation of violence in Gaza and Lebanon.
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“It has been made clear that Hezbollah flags are not welcome and should not be brought,” the group’s president Adel Salman said.
However, fixating on flags was a “convenient distraction” from violence in the Middle East, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said.
“It’s a national disgrace that condemning a flag has become easier than confronting the brutal reality of a rogue state intent on annihilating an entire population.”
Dutton earlier called for Parliament to be recalled to urgently pass legislation criminalising the glorification of a terrorist leader if current laws weren’t strong enough.
Coalition frontbenchers have also demanded visa cancellations for anyone supporting Hezbollah.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke rejected Dutton’s demand, saying there was existing federal law supported by both parties. He accused Dutton of wanting to “throw more kerosene on the fire” of the public mood around the widening Middle East conflict.
Burke also said the government wouldn’t hesitate to cancel visas if those who waved the Hezbollah flags were found not to be Australian citizens. But he said he “presumed” most had citizenship.
“I’ve got no presumption that anyone’s on a visa,” Burke told Radio National on Tuesday.
Other political leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, have also expressed concern about the flames of social conflict being fanned.
“We do not want people to bring radical ideologies and conflict here, our multiculturalism and social cohesion cannot be taken for granted,” he said on Monday.
– TND/AAP
