Victoria pushes major protest crackdown in wake of synagogue firebombing

The Victorian government is pushing a widespread crackdown on protests and racially motivated violence and intimidation.

Premier Jacinta Allan announced on Tuesday a Bill would be introduced to parliament that would ban protests outside religious buildings in the same way people are excluded from protesting outside abortion clinics.

But the suite of changes would also ban masks and balaclavas at protests.

“We know they are being used to conceal identity and shield agitators from crowd control measures like capsicum spray,” Ms Allan said on Tuesday.

“Face masks are not a free pass to break the law. There should be no place to hide in this state if you are a racist.”

The proposed laws come in the wake of a synagogue in southeast Melbourne being firebombed earlier this month.

“I will never forget the visit I made last Friday, I will never forget the sight and smell of the blackened synagogue for the rest of my life,” Ms Allan said.

“I will never forget the harrowing stories of those who had escaped from that act of terror … anti-Semitism is a cancer and we must leave no stone unturned to fight the evil of anti-Semitism.”

White supremacists who gather to protest in Victoria often cover their faces. Mass pro-Palestine demonstrations have been running through the Melbourne CBD since October 7, attended by thousands of people. Often a small amount of people in attendance will wear a keffiyeh and a face mask or will cover their face with the keffiyeh.

“Some of these reforms are complex because they involve a balance of fundamental rights, but we are committed to consulting with the community and delivering them as soon as possible,” Police Minister Anthony Carbines said.

Australian Jewish Association chief executive, Robert Gregory said the changes should have been made sooner.

“The changes should have been announced over a year ago,” he said.

“It took a terrorist attack that burned down a synagogue for this government to do the right thing and act.”

Mr Gregory believes the proposed changes should help to protect Jewish Australians “as synagogues have been targeted by anti-Jewish mobs and parts of the city have become a no-go zone for Jews”.

As well as banning face coverings, the state government proposes to ban the flags and symbols of listed terrorist organisations in public and the use of glue, rope, chains and locks that protesters use in their demonstrations.

Displaying the flags and symbols of terrorist groups for the purpose of incitement is already banned by commonwealth law, but the proposed Victorian laws would mean a total ban.

Victoria has already outlawed all Nazi symbols.

The suite of proposed changes will take varying lengths of time to implement. Some will go to parliament in the coming months, others will be developed via community consultation.

One reform that will go to the wider community is a “social cohesion pledge”.

This will mean Victorian organisations need to abide by the pledge to receive a government grant. If such a pledge is broken, the offending and afflicted groups will “set a goal” to meet and discuss the issue.

“There will be some people who would stand at the platform like this and declare that multiculturalism is the problem,” Ms Allan said during the press conference.

“Well, no. In my view, in the view of my government, multiculturalism is the solution. I believe that those principles of multiculturalism, of understanding tolerance and celebration will help us to repair those threads of social cohesion that have been frayed and torn in the last year.”