Israeli President Visit - Question Without Notice
My question is directed to the Leader of the Government, representing the Premier. Yesterday at least 169 Muslim organisations across the country issued a public statement calling for a full and public apology from the Premier, the police Minister and police leadership for the disruption of peaceful Muslim prayer and the use of force against worshippers at Monday night's protest against the visit by the head of Israel. Will the Premier apologise for the shockingly disrespectful and violent actions of New South Wales police officers against Muslim Australians that occurred on Monday night?
The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage) (11:49): The short answer is that, no, the Premier will not apologise for what occurred this week. We had quite an extensive conversation about these matters yesterday in the debate on the matter of public importance, and we canvassed a number of ongoing issues. First of all was the work that went into the Government's attempt to appropriately manage the visit of an international head of state to a community who is mourning the loss of 15 people, with many others injured. The second part of that was facilitating the right and the ability of people in New South Wales to protest. There was a lot of toing and froing about those matters, and what that ended up with was offers to protest at different places, which were rejected by the organisers.
What occurred also was a court case that challenged the legality of those, and the court held that the protest could be held under the circumstances which the Government and the Parliament had passed. Then a lot of information was put into the public domain, about the way in which the protest could be undertaken as allowed and facilitated at Town Hall. No-one thinks that how that ended up was good. But there are ongoing reviews of actions that occurred there. The point the Premier makes, which is why he will not be apologising—I can say on his behalf—is that if we have to choose between public safety and something else, we will do that. There was an unfortunate way in which that ended up occurring, but we need to work through those issues and will continue to do so.
Ms CATE FAEHRMANN (11:51): It is extraordinary that, at this time, the Premier is saying that he will not publicly apologise because he is thinking of public safety. The Muslim community is absolutely seething about what happened. I spoke this morning to Gamel Kheir from the Lebanese Muslim Association, who told me that they are seething not only about the actions of police but also because the Premier who has not apologised nor picked up the phone to the Lebanese Muslim Association or—I would love for him to correct the record—to any Muslim leader, as a result of those disgraceful actions by the New South Wales police.
The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage) (11:52): I place on record that I, representing the Premier, was asked the question. I have indicated what I believe he will do, but I think we need to be a bit clearer. I cannot channel in this moment exactly what the Premier will or will not do. I will make this point: Some members in this place just want to continue to stoke the flames of this challenging environment. Members of this Government are working very closely with Muslim communities. We have members of this Government who are Muslim members of Parliament and are working very closely. I thank The Greens for telling us what we should be doing all the time and all the things we are doing wrong. We should just do what they say. But the reality is that we are carefully dealing with all of these matters.