Key Points
- Peter Dutton says young Australians can be radicalised because of a “bombardment of propaganda” online.
- The Opposition leader has accused the government of not condemning antisemitic conduct strongly enough.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly and unequivocally condemned acts of antisemitism in Australia.
More cars and buildings have been spray-painted with anti-Jewish slogans as the nation’s leaders remain at odds on how to combat a string of attacks amid rising community anguish.
On Sunday, police said they were investigating an overnight spate of “offensive graffiti” in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The attacks targeted vehicles and garages with spray paint, and images online show cars damaged with graffiti saying “f— Jews”.
The incident comes as federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton put major tech companies in the firing line over concerns young people are being radicalised amid the spate of antisemitic attacks.
Social media platforms profiting off kids need to do more to keep them safe online but failed to do so because of a focus on profits, he said.
“Our kids are on their devices constantly, the same rules should apply online as they do in the real world,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“If there’s child abuse material, which I’ve tried for years to get Facebook to take down, if there is that sort of explicit material, if there is terrorist-related advocacy and spreading of that hate message, they have the algorithms.
“They have the technology and now the AI to be able to clear it but of course, they don’t, because they’re driven by profit.”
Dutton concerned about internet ‘propaganda’
The comments come amid concern from the Australian Federal Police that overseas actors paid local criminals to conduct antisemitic attacks in Australia.
Attacks have included the firebombing of a synagogue and the torching of multiple cars, which were also graffitied with the Hakenkreuz — the swastika symbol appropriated by the Nazi Party — and antisemitic language.
“As [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general] Mike Burgess would point out, a young person sitting in front of a computer screen can be indoctrinated over a week or two because of the constant videos and bombardment of propaganda,” Dutton said.
“So there’s obviously the influence of social media, there’s the influence of people who are radicalised here in our own society.”
Asked about the responsibility of X owner Elon Musk for this radicalisation, Dutton said he “had a battle for over a decade against people like Elon Musk and [Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and others who were making money out of our kids”, which he said needed to be done in a “responsible way”.
Prime minister did ‘nothing’ about antisemitism, Dutton claims
Dutton said ambiguity from the government about activities such as anti-Israel protests around university campuses that impacted Jewish students had resulted in an environment that allowed antisemitism to fester.
He accused the prime minister and universities of not being strong enough in condemning antisemitic conduct.
“To this very day, the universities haven’t given a proper account of how that was allowed to continue on,” he said.
“The prime minister did nothing about it, the marches on the streets that went on for months and months, waving flags of terrorist organisations, all of that allowed people to believe that there was no red line that could be crossed and there’s no consequence.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly and unequivocally condemned acts of antisemitism and called for perpetrators to be hunted down and prosecuted.
Federal and state police had investigated and charged people over the waving of terrorist flags at protests.
Dutton accused of ‘playing politics’
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth accused Dutton of politicising a serious issue.
“It’s unacceptable that there are people of Jewish faith feeling unsafe in this country but for the government it’s about being responsible and making sure people are actually safe, not playing politics,” she told Sky News.
“So if the leader of the Opposition just wants to play politics with this then he should be condemned, quite frankly, because it’s about what actually leads to safety in our community.”
The Opposition leader has been criticised by some Jewish community leaders for ignoring the voices of Jews who were critical of Israel and using the community as a political football.
Dutton has also called for mandatory minimum prison time for terrorist offences to be included in hate speech laws set to come before the parliament in the coming days.
Doubt has been cast by the legal fraternity, human rights groups and the government about the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentencing.
