Page 5187 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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The point of my question today in question time was that I believe that there is an identifiable group of agents provocateurs at work there. I think I know where they are from. I think I know what they are about. They have seriously embarrassed this Labor Government. I am not in the least suggesting that they are friends of this Labor Government, or any government, in fact. I am sure that they have been given a great deal of leniency under our democratic system; but they had better be warned. All they will do will be to provoke a great deal of adverse feeling now from policemen and policewomen who have been so badly dealt with. What happens, in fact, ironically, is that we brutalise youngsters in the police force at the very worst time of their careers. It has been a most unfortunate event.
We have had years of effective community policing here, with few exceptions, and now we have a cross-brutalisation of very large proportions. It is most unfortunate. I do enjoin Mr Stefaniak also to cool the language a bit, because it will end up being tit for tat. As the Minister for Health would know, I was out the back ringing the casualty ward at Calvary tonight. There is a long list of broken heads and injured protesters as well. That has been dealt with largely by the competent services out at Calvary casualty.
I am going to keep a close watch on this. I am sure that Mr Connolly said what he needs to say to Assistant Commissioner Dawson. I really think the dogs should be taken away. For me, they conjure up images of things I have seen abroad - totally unacceptable things. Also, the animal rights people have additional objections to the use of animals in that situation. If it is true that one of them latched onto the flesh of a protester on the roadway in Flemington Road, it is not the image we want in the national capital.
I fervently hope that there are no photographs of that being shown in Indonesia, in Jakarta, tomorrow. I fervently hope that we do not see a photo of a dog clamped onto the arm of an Australian protester being published in Indonesia tomorrow. You must see these things globally. The use of dogs in crowd control is known to be extremely effective; but it also is related to methods used by fascist bully boys in the Nazi era, in Chile and in South Africa, and it is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. In my view the dogs must be withdrawn.
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