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00:00Cronulla riots December 11 2005 changed us we want to think of ourselves as that
00:22friendly nation where all are welcome and we want to avoid a small ugliness that exists
00:29and with Cronulla riots we were forced to address it
00:40Cronulla riots were a turning point in Australia's history
00:47people think the Cronulla riots started on the day of the Cronulla riots that's completely wrong
00:52Cronulla was a weaponizing of the flag to represent certain politics that was anti-immigration
01:08a lot of the things that we saw that day we never showed on television we considered them too scary and
01:16it's only now 20 years on that we're seeing some of that vision
01:26but i don't know if any of us thought it would be as ugly as it was
01:31machine guns molotov cocktails grenades
01:37gangs of men of middle eastern origin paying for revenge
01:41there was a very quick reckoning that had forced us to question is that what we
01:46mean by being a multicultural society this is who we want to be
01:54we woke up to a different country
01:56australia changed overnight
02:09there are very few things that still remain quintessentially australian but the beach being
02:28a free place for everybody it's just a very very australian idea
02:33cronulla is a beachside suburb that'd be just over 20 kilometers from the cbd of sydney
02:44it's home to the cronulla sharks it's where former prime minister scott morrison had his electorate
02:52we sometimes joke calling it god's country or the insular peninsula because it tends to be the sort of
02:57place that if you're born there you never want to leave
03:00the demographics of cronulla were very anglo-saxon very white very beach surfy orientated a lot of
03:11people worked and wanted to live and their lifestyle was the beach so young guys as it was the blonde
03:17hair blue-eyed we love australia we're proud of it and we're proud to be here i was at the surf club
03:22on that day and doing my patrols and observing everything that was going on at the beach
03:30in 2005 what was i listening to there would have been some powder finger
03:37probably some spider bait a little bit of black betty
03:42black betty was a very masculine rambunctious and had that real rock and roll swagger
03:49i was definitely listening to a lot of that pop hip-hop rmb black eyed peas
04:00god it's actually a great time
04:09cronulla is the only beachside suburb in sydney that has the train line that goes to it so
04:16um over the years there's been groups like westies bankies sharpies a large number of
04:23gang type groups that have come to cronulla and got into conflict with the local surface
04:31and it's about territory it's about behavior down there and expectations
04:35because the surface can be quite territorial in their nature
04:38in 2005 i was i was the regional commander for area of cronulla and all the cbd parts of sydney and
04:48so forth and no matter who you are if you turn up here and want to pull that sort of activity on you
04:54will be arrested so in the lead-up to the actual cronulla riots there was quite a build-up of tension
04:59and community issues and local angst where there was um lebanese muslim young youth coming from the
05:07western suburbs to the beach area you had some people who were coming from the western suburbs of
05:14sydney wanting to come and enjoy cronulla beach as they should and there was a bit of a clash of
05:18cultures well basically if you come to the beach and you yell at people from a distance abuse then
05:24how can you demand respect that's just rude here they come up to you and ask you for example if you
05:28root and they all laugh those sorts of quite offensive comments which were really taken badly by
05:35young girls but also their fathers their boyfriends husbands and and and so forth they come down here
05:40and they start with their mouth and they just bullshit everybody they harass our women it's their religion
05:54in the early 2000s it was the young muslims that were involved in the gang style behavior strutting
06:03through the malls in gangs fights with young local people standing over young local people for their
06:11money in 2005 i was elected to be the president of the la kimba sports club australian of the muslim faith
06:23we were under pressure we felt that all the bad things that happen by individual it will be put under
06:32the microscope and portray that person is atypical of all of us
06:41uh harassment the the stealing the theft uh was just all part and parcel of every summer
06:48i've been rolled i've been jumped i've been walking home from norby's just walking through the park i've
06:55had three dudes sneak up on me i don't believe there was any issue on the beaches of cronulla about
07:02lebanese gang or anti-social behavior i believe it was a beat up
07:08people think the cronulla riots started on the day of the cronulla riots that's completely wrong
07:19they started well before then
07:21it was something that was simmering away since 2001
07:40we were having conversations around terror around migration
07:46i was experiencing that feeling the sense that i was an outsider that our communities were outsiders
07:53and that people weren't comfortable with us
07:57we were a multicultural nation we were becoming more multicultural but there are a lot of tensions
08:03particularly around australians from arab backgrounds there was the sense that the combination of their
08:11ethnicity and their religion meant that they were going to come to australia be in little huddles of
08:20people and not become australian
08:28and then we had a terrible series of gang rapes in sydney perpetrated by people who happened to be
08:36muslim and were saying disgusting things about aussie girls while they were carrying out those
08:41attacks an 18 year old girl who gets off the suburban train with some lebanese australian men
08:49when she has been sexually assaulted by 14 men and raped 25 times the victims were all caucasian women
08:57aged between 13 and 18 those convicted all lebanese muslim youths i was quote an aussie pig and these
09:06people were making out that i was some sort of a lesser being so i think a lot of people would be
09:12hearing that and feeling a degree of fear and in cronoa you don't have the same kind of mix as
09:19you've got in other parts of sydney where everyone's living alongside each other from all different
09:24walks of life all different faiths all different cultural groups trying to get intimidated by them
09:30and you're in your own area and you feel like you can't like be safe
09:35his son mcgravis the lakemba resident claims locals have been taunting him saying he's not welcome
09:41in crinola i'm just here to have fun have a swim and go home and that's it i want no trouble
09:52all of these tensions were there and it was really interesting to see what might actually
09:58make those kinds of underlying tensions explode and all of a sudden boom the major police hunt is
10:07underway for a cowardly group of up to 20 men who attacked two surf lifesavers at crinola
10:14lifesavers are just finished an eight-hour patrol at north crinola when they're abused by several men
10:20described as of middle eastern appearance the lifesavers and lifeguards were there and a couple of
10:26middle eastern guys had been kicking the ball around they came over and a couple of words got
10:31said and and i think it became a little bit of the male bravado then became you know push me shove
10:36you almost it then became very much in your face the lifesavers were bashed around the head were kicked
10:42and punched the media then turned that into an almost like circus-like event where it was the sons
10:48of anzacs have been beaten by the muslim lebanese almost from the 9 11 attack the terrorists have arrived
10:54in sydney for anyone to attack our aussie icons our lifesavers who put their own lives at risk
11:05is just un-australian something has to be done i don't feel safe to let my children down on that beach
11:13again for many this was not just a brutal crime but an act of sacrilege young volunteer surf lifesavers
11:22bashed while giving up their weekend to help others in all fact it was a local assault and
11:27should have been dealt with as such but it was a very very big build-up in the media at the time
11:36the feeling that that erupted out locally it was massive this attack is not australian and it's
11:41absolutely unacceptable as far as we're concerned it's finally everyone's had enough of it
11:46people around here are going to start doing something about it you know like it's not going
11:49to be a one-sided affair anymore i was a court reporter in the newsroom at that time it was the
11:54outcome they dreaded outraged by the sentence the father of one victim lashed out in the courtroom i was
12:00in my early mid-20s you could feel the tension building there were all these text messages going back and
12:11forth something like 270 000. locals have received a text message asking them to reclaim the beach this
12:21sunday every Aussie in the shire get down to north crinola to help support lib and wog bashing day
12:30let's claim back our shire you look at the lead up it almost seems in a way like it was inevitable
12:39that it was going to happen or come to a head it's pretty much a turf war and it's in danger of spreading
12:45from the sand
12:50my suggestion is to invite one of the biker gangs to be present in numbers at crinola railway station
13:06when these lebanese thugs arrive it'd be worth the price of admission to watch these cowards scurry
13:11back onto the train for the return trip to their lairs australians old and new shouldn't have to put up
13:17with this scum when you've then got inflammatory voices in the media alan jones calling them middle
13:27eastern thugs and it just it kind of gave permission for this to play out as it did
13:38crinola is a very long beach and it's been taken over by this scum it's not a few causing trouble it's all
13:42them you hear people respected are in command behind the microphone influencing young people
13:52saying these terrible things it was awful
13:56uh
14:02issuing a final and blunt warning police have told troublemakers to stay away from crinola tomorrow
14:09and avoid a showdown with frustrated locals you will end up with warfare in the streets so let's just
14:14cool it a bit
14:15it a bit i think we were prepared for something bad to happen but i don't know if any of us
14:27thought it would be as ugly as it was
14:29a mostly sunny day for the state sydney fine with sunny periods and night to moderate southeast
14:45winds down at cronulla there was definitely trouble brewing
14:54it was really hard situation to de-escalate and i think there'd been a shift that the
14:59this was no longer a policing matter and the community wanted to send a very clear signal
15:03on terms that they wish to express themselves so you could definitely feel that escalation
15:16i was at the surf club on that particular day the day started off overcast and very much of
15:23my thought well this is going to be a bit of a dud day
15:30sunday december 11 looked like any other sunday at cronulla beach
15:36people turning up going for a swim probably a few more people there than normal but not in the morning
15:42and then more and more people coming australian flags wrapped around people's heads
15:58my recollections now of a lot of young men a lot of shirts off tattoos australian flags
16:04so it's definitely like a humanity and a crowd people having parties on balconies
16:17so it felt like an australia day there were eskies there were flags
16:20there was there was a soundtrack a pub rock australian soundtrack
16:35so on the actual day of the cronulla riots my role i was the police commander in charge of the
16:39whole situation it was more like a carnival atmosphere if you like um there's about a crowd
16:44of about 5 000 people had turned up there you're going to be proud initially it was primarily a
16:59protest um it was a protest against the assault on the lifeguard
17:07it's about those three lifesavers that got bashed and it's not cool
17:11doing their job down here doing their job saving lives you know like they go out they risk their
17:17neck every week
17:20it was a protest about reclaiming the beach from the
17:24they believe locally terror terrorizing almost of their suburb um by youth from the western suburbs
17:31we're sick and tired of just being harassed on the beach they don't come with their beach towels
17:36they don't come down to have a swim they haven't got their boardies on they come down to harass
17:39and they've been coming down here hanging out at the wall making it unsafe for people to walk
17:43around here at night mate it's just enough we just had enough we love everyone we're not righteous
17:48we've had enough
17:59most people who went there were getting on the cans and then before you know it one knucklehead leads
18:05to two knuckleheads leads to three you know a lot of the things that we saw that day we never showed
18:12on television we considered them too scary too incendiary this is our beach and we want it back
18:19the decision was made that we wouldn't inflame this situation any further
18:36and it's only now 20 years on that we're seeing some of that vision
18:41as the sun then came out all the young fellows were arriving we're all carrying two dutch packs over
19:02their shoulders of beer oh mate and it was just getting bigger and bigger
19:13and louder and louder
19:17as people were getting drunker and drunker and the day was getting hotter and hotter
19:21boys get down here help us out it's all on so it was growing
19:26yeah i remember in some of the where the massive people were just people sort of standing around
19:33it reminded me of like being at a gig right like at a music festival
19:42there was like an aimlessness
19:44it was peculiar
20:00people will not tolerate muslims in our society they do nothing all they do they harass our women
20:06they come here in groups groups of 10 15 they harass and intimidate women
20:11if they're going to harass us then they're not welcome they need to show respect yeah they don't
20:15show us any respect we're sick of the disrespect they're sicky and they're trying you know so we
20:20just don't like it and we've one guy asked for a cigarette and he didn't even smoke that's why we're all
20:25here today
20:35so yeah pretty much we just want them to leave us alone and just and get the
20:39out of our country go home
20:42so by early afternoon the crowd had become hostile drunk whipped up revved up
20:57and i remember the moment when the chanting started
21:03and that felt like a real turning point
21:06everything changed in that moment when no one was safe
21:15i think the words f off lebs was really shocking
21:23hysteria is hyping up dramatically
21:26and i think this is going to blow
21:36it's all on let's go
21:39What's really strange about the Cronulla riots
22:07is it was a one-sided riot.
22:11It was just this huge mob of mainly young Aussie blokes.
22:15It wasn't like you've got a gang here and a gang here
22:18and they're fighting in the streets of Cronulla.
22:21Anyone who didn't look like them,
22:24anyone who didn't have blonde hair and white,
22:27the crowd was turning on them.
22:33These are not thugs.
22:35These are just poor, innocent people
22:36who probably didn't even know
22:37what was going to be happening in Cronulla that day.
22:45I mean, how frightening for some of these people
22:47who had nothing to do with what was going on.
22:55Fuck out of our smile!
22:57Fuck out of our smile!
22:59But they looked different, so they were chased.
23:02Get back!
23:05Go fucking home!
23:14Go fucking home!
23:15Go fucking home!
23:22Back out of there, mate.
23:23Back out of there.
23:23I had in a real-time moment of,
23:35oh, my goodness, this is what racism looks like,
23:37when it's right there in front of me
23:40being played out in violence.
23:41Don't ever fucking jump back!
23:43Look out!
23:43Back out of there!
23:44Back out of there, mate!
23:51Although 2005 doesn't seem that long ago,
23:54when you look back at that time,
23:56we really didn't understand that.
23:58We did frame ourselves as a white Australia and an other.
24:02I see myself as an Aussie,
24:17but I never really saw that reflected back to me.
24:21But what Cronulla did was really put that up in lights
24:25and really put it on the main stage.
24:29Hey girls, can you tell us what's going on over there?
24:32What's going on?
24:33Leb bashing, mate.
24:34Bah!
24:40At one stage, even in the crowd,
24:43there was a couple of young men from Bangladesh
24:45that turned up in their vehicle
24:46and inadvertently end up among the mob.
24:55You know, they were from Bangladesh,
24:56not even from the Middle East.
24:58The crowd sensed that there was something happening.
25:14There was a trainload of people supposedly coming in
25:17from the western suburbs.
25:22So suddenly you've got this mad crowd
25:24rushing towards the station.
25:28When they got to the station,
25:38they got onto a train which had just arrived.
25:45And there were two young Arabic boys on that train
25:48who had no real knowledge of what was even occurring.
25:55There was an extremely violent attack
26:01by the drunken crowd on those two young men.
26:08Craig Campbell, who was sergeant in charge
26:10of the commuter crime unit at the time,
26:13he pulled out his baton and he single-handedly
26:16and he took on that entire carriage
26:19full of drunken yobas.
26:27Now, that's one of the bravest things
26:29that I've ever seen.
26:30No doubt he saved the lives of those two young men
26:48on the train that day.
26:52Really quickly after that,
26:54people left the station
26:55and they returned down to the beach.
27:06You know, as a photographer,
27:07I've photographed a lot of war zones,
27:08but this was a little bit different.
27:12So in the corner of my eye,
27:13I noticed a man running out of a stairwell
27:15and there's like three or four people chasing him,
27:19just giving haymaker kink hits.
27:21And I realised, I've got to keep clicking.
27:24The victim in this case ran onto a street
27:26and then sought refuge on the back of a ute.
27:30And so he was covering his head
27:32and blocking the blows.
27:34More and more people piling in.
27:36The fists turn into beer bottles
27:38and they're slamming these beer bottles on his head.
27:42But at that moment,
27:43a police officer came in with capsicum spray.
27:49But I quickly realised this ain't over.
27:54And this could actually get a whole lot worse.
28:00Leave him alone!
28:02Help him do your back up, mate!
28:03People started throwing stubbies.
28:24And I think one of the first ones
28:26that came in managed to hit me on the head
28:28because I was covered in blood.
28:33I think that's where probably
28:39where the policing had then stepped up
28:41and started organising crowd control.
28:48It eventually quietened down.
28:55But any thought that that was the end,
28:57we were so wrong.
28:59There was so much more to come
29:00and it was going to get really ugly again.
29:04I lived with my community
29:06and I know they're not going to take it laying down.
29:09And that's the message
29:10that I've told people in authority.
29:13This is not going to go without a reaction.
29:16I think one of the untold stories of Cronulla riots
29:31is the revenge attacks.
29:34Retaliation.
29:34There was so much anger in the community.
29:38The people in the outer suburbs of Sydney
29:42who've now watched the TV news
29:44and seen people who look like them being chased and bashed,
29:47they then decided to get their revenge.
29:53So they jumped in their cars
29:55and they headed towards Cronulla.
29:56The public are probably not aware to this day
30:00of the actual level of threat
30:03and the level of violence that was occurring.
30:06Gangs of men of Middle Eastern origin
30:08baying for revenge.
30:10This 45-year-old man
30:13randomly selected by a gang
30:15as he put his garbage bins on the footpath.
30:17He survived the beating
30:19but has broken ribs and head injuries.
30:23Residents throughout Sydney South
30:25are literally living in fear.
30:26No-one knows where or who
30:28these roaming gangs will strike next.
30:30The most serious incident
30:31came outside a golf club
30:33when a car pulled up
30:34alongside Daniel Gray and his friends.
30:36The car doors flew open
30:39and four guys started running.
30:43One of the guys called
30:44he had to get those Aussie sluts.
30:46At that stage
30:47I had one on either side of my head
30:49kicking my head.
30:50The next thing Daniel knew
30:52he'd been stabbed in the back so forcefully
30:54that the knife's handle had snapped.
30:58Anyone Caucasian on the street
31:00were bashed for no other reason
31:02than the fact that they were Caucasian.
31:04Violently bashed.
31:05Some with weapons
31:07including baseball bats.
31:13Driven by hatred
31:15the Middle Eastern mob
31:16was on the move
31:17for the second straight night.
31:20And they were true to their word.
31:23At least 30 car loads of men
31:25managed to make it into the shire.
31:28The men adopted the tactics
31:29of smashing and then running.
31:31I was walking back from the 7-Eleven
31:39just going to get a can of drink.
31:41I heard some yelling and screaming
31:43across the road.
31:44I looked across.
31:45Next thing I know
31:46some guy had run across from me.
31:47I heard running and like a screaming.
31:50I turned up.
31:51That's the first guy
31:52that throws the beer bottle at me.
31:53I'm back into this arcove here.
31:57And next thing I know
31:57there's 20, 30 guys hitting me.
32:01Hit, hit, hit.
32:02Just getting hit in the head.
32:05The next thing I can remember
32:06there was a steel bar
32:07coming up and hitting me.
32:08And then I don't know
32:11what happened from then.
32:15Police found knuckle-dusters.
32:18Iron bars, baseball bats,
32:21other clubs, knives, guns,
32:26shootings into buildings
32:28and shop windows.
32:29Really violent revenge attacks
32:31occurring in multiple suburbs
32:33and sometimes at multiple places at once.
32:35And inexplicably,
32:37it wasn't just Caucasians
32:39who were the targets.
32:40Lebanese man,
32:41six, seven car
32:42get up in the street
32:43in my shop
32:44and tried to hit me
32:45and said,
32:46I'm going to kill you
32:47and hit my shop.
32:49I was thinking
32:49I'm going to get killed.
32:51I didn't think
32:52I could get away with it.
32:55It was kind of a scary time
32:57where it didn't matter
32:58where you lived.
33:00You didn't want to go out at night.
33:03I'm not sure
33:04that any police force
33:05in the world
33:05that I'm aware of
33:06had before experienced
33:08these marauding
33:10and rampaging mobile gangs.
33:13One of the boys,
33:15I was there
33:15and he said,
33:16Doc, come on,
33:17I want to show you something.
33:19Took me on the side,
33:20opened the boot of his car
33:22and he had a blanket,
33:23removed the blanket
33:24and he had a couple
33:26of machine guns
33:27and all that sort of things.
33:29And I said,
33:30listen, close it down.
33:31We don't want to have
33:32any of this.
33:34The police are
33:36on our side.
33:37We're going to respect
33:38the law
33:39because if it is,
33:41all it's got
33:41the bigger guns,
33:42all it's got
33:43is more violent.
33:44That's not the way
33:45you build a society.
33:50The revenge attacks
33:52were so confronting
33:54but I think
33:55what people don't know
33:56is they could have
33:57been a whole lot worse.
33:58I think the police
34:00did a great job
34:00of keeping that quiet
34:01and it's taken
34:02a long time
34:03for those facts
34:03to come out.
34:05Police were receiving
34:06very high level
34:07intelligence
34:07from our own
34:09intelligence sources.
34:11For instance,
34:12information,
34:13the following weekend
34:13there is going to be
34:14a drive-by shooting
34:15using machine guns
34:17at the,
34:17into the beer garden
34:19of the North Cronulla Hotel.
34:20We conducted a,
34:24a covert undercover
34:25police operation
34:26that was run
34:27that took a hand grenade
34:30off the black market
34:31that was attempted
34:31to be thrown
34:32into that beer garden
34:33from a moving car
34:34going past
34:35and we literally
34:36took off the streets
34:37truckloads of weapons.
34:40Five people
34:41have been arrested
34:42for the possession
34:43of Molotov cocktails
34:44and we believe
34:45that they were intending
34:46to use those weapons.
34:48They found machine guns.
34:50The police found
34:51Molotov cocktails,
34:53grenades.
34:55Another one was
34:56Westfield's at Miranda
34:57in the Thursday night
34:58before Christmas.
34:59We had very good
35:00intelligence that there
35:01was going to be
35:02an attack done on that
35:03and we saw recently
35:04what happened
35:05with one offender
35:05at Bondi.
35:07Well, there was going
35:07to be 50 people
35:09pull up out the front
35:10and rampage
35:10through the shopping
35:11centre with knives,
35:12guns, baseball bats.
35:16Can you imagine
35:18had any of those
35:19attacks gone ahead
35:20in our country?
35:23This is Australia.
35:28For a good chunk
35:30of Australians
35:30it made them realise
35:32that the kind of
35:33anti-Muslim sentiment
35:34that they'd started
35:35to get used to
35:36in the media
35:37could actually have
35:38real serious impacts.
35:40It's my view
35:51that the Cronulla
35:52rights were a
35:53turning point
35:53in Australia's history.
35:55A report of
35:5520 to 30 vehicles
35:57headed towards
35:58Cronulla.
35:59Police eventually
35:59got on top of it
36:01as they always do
36:02but not without
36:03special new powers
36:04that had to be
36:06introduced
36:06and given to the police.
36:08unprecedented powers
36:10where they were able
36:10to stop vehicles,
36:12check licences.
36:13At least 30 carloads
36:14of men managed
36:15to make it
36:16into the Shire.
36:17Several were stopped
36:18and searched
36:19by police.
36:19I know I've got nothing.
36:21You could not get
36:22into that suburb
36:22unless you went
36:23through a police block
36:24and submit yourself
36:25to a search
36:26and your vehicle
36:27to a search.
36:28How's it not?
36:29And it's very draconian
36:32level of powers
36:33that have never
36:34been seen before.
36:35A special strike force
36:36made up of 500 officers
36:38is to be set up.
36:39It will be on standby
36:40night and day
36:41to deal with
36:42the specific problem
36:43of racial unrest.
36:46I covered courts
36:52and the police
36:53did an extraordinary job
36:54in their investigations
36:56in the days afterwards.
36:57So I saw a lot of them.
36:59From both sides.
37:01Police allege
37:01he was part of the mob
37:03which stormed a train
37:04bashing two Middle Eastern men.
37:06And you hear
37:07their backstory
37:08and never been involved
37:10in anything like this
37:11before.
37:13Ashamed of their
37:14involvement in it.
37:16Would swear
37:16to the magistrate
37:17that this is not
37:18the person they were.
37:19And I always just felt
37:20like going,
37:21look what you've done
37:21to your mother.
37:22Did you have a chance
37:23to speak to your son?
37:24Oh, sorry.
37:25No comment.
37:26Hattie Kawaja
37:26had a handful
37:27of supporters in court.
37:28They didn't take kindly
37:30to the cameras
37:31waiting outside.
37:32What the f*** are you doing?
37:34Stay the f***.
37:35Where the f*** are you hitting, Brian?
37:36On the night
37:37of the December 11 riots,
37:3924-year-old Kawaja
37:40climbed Brighton-Lisande's
37:42RSL
37:43and stole an Australian flag.
37:45Then in front of 150 Lebanese men
37:48set in the light.
37:51The magistrate said
37:52it was incomprehensible
37:53that Kawaja
37:54burnt the Australian flag
37:56three days
37:57after being sentenced
37:58to 500 hours
37:59community service
38:00for embezzlement.
38:01He described the crime
38:03as extreme vandalism,
38:04sentencing him
38:05to three months jail.
38:06I think a lot of people
38:11felt uneasy
38:11about the fact
38:12that the Australian flag
38:13was so present.
38:15O.C.
38:16O.C.
38:17What was pronounced
38:18to me
38:19was how the Australian flag
38:20was used
38:21as a kind of call to arms
38:22for all those people
38:23who were really angry.
38:24Fight for this!
38:25Fight for this!
38:27Fight for this!
38:28Fight for this!
38:29For a time
38:31I feel the flag
38:32represented
38:34a racist
38:35white
38:36Australia.
38:38I think there were such
38:39ugly connotations
38:42that went with anyone
38:43who carried a flag.
38:46Fight for this!
38:46Fight for this!
38:47Fight for this!
38:48Fight for this!
38:50For me
38:51the flag
38:53that was representative
38:54of the country
38:55that I was born in
38:56you know
38:56I once wore the flag
38:58to celebrate Australia Day
39:00as my hijab
39:01it was something
39:03that you know
39:03if nothing else
39:04represented my country
39:06suddenly became
39:08a tool of fear
39:09for me.
39:10O.C.
39:11O.C.
39:13O.C.
39:14O.C.
39:15O.C.
39:16O.C.
39:16And so there was
39:18I think
39:18a very quick reckoning
39:19that something
39:21horrible
39:22had happened here
39:23that this was
39:24a questioning
39:24of who we were
39:25and looking
39:27to those institutions
39:28police
39:29courts
39:30to stabilise this.
39:35Post-Cronulla
39:36we had politicians
39:37we had media
39:39even
39:39and we had
39:40community leaders
39:41stepping in.
39:42It's about finding out
39:43where we're heading
39:45and how we can work together.
39:46We could see
39:47a 60 minutes
39:49grapple with
39:50an audience
39:50on the issues.
39:52There's never been
39:52anything quite like it
39:53not in my lifetime anyway.
39:55Nothing is ugly
39:56or is shameful
39:57nothing is un-Australian.
39:59This could have been
40:00any beach
40:01between Newcastle
40:02and Wollongong
40:03because this
40:04obnoxious
40:05criminal
40:06thuggish behaviour
40:07has been underway
40:08for 10 years.
40:10So what you're trying
40:10to tell me right now
40:11that if we were
40:12to grab our community
40:13all these
40:14so-called thugs
40:15how you put it
40:16and keep denouncing
40:17these kids
40:18and lock them up
40:19you think that's
40:19going to be a solution?
40:20Listen there
40:21are you serious?
40:24I'm an Australian
40:25born Lebanese Muslim
40:26and to be told
40:27by another white
40:29Anglo-Saxon
40:30to go back
40:31to my country
40:31well this is my country
40:33where do you want me to go?
40:37Lady in front
40:37what do you have to say?
40:38We can walk to school
40:39five days a week
40:40we can get stopped
40:41three out of the five days
40:43get harassed
40:44for being Australian
40:45walking to school.
40:46I'm Lebanese
40:47and I'm Muslim
40:47and I also get harassed
40:49so it's not just the Aussies
40:50I really really
40:51get angry
40:51when Aussies think
40:52that they're targeted
40:53just because they're white
40:54that is not true.
40:56We keep coming back
40:57to who belongs
40:58and who doesn't
41:00and that conversation
41:01has never gone away
41:03and we don't come up
41:04with answers.
41:06Aren't we sick
41:07of coming back
41:08to this conversation
41:09over and over again?
41:10We still ask ourselves
41:11are we racist?
41:13We still ask ourselves
41:14who are we as a nation?
41:17I don't think
41:18we've moved beyond that yet.
41:20It was not racially motivated
41:27at all
41:27it was more to do
41:29with the behaviour
41:30that was being exhibited
41:31that was then racially badged
41:33by local people
41:36who had had detentions
41:37who were building up
41:38and they'd had enough of it.
41:39We lived through the
41:46Corona days
41:46we lived through
41:48before Corona days
41:50and now we are talking
41:5120 years afterwards
41:53without any doubt
41:55it was racially based
41:59you're not welcome
42:00this is our land
42:01get the hell out
42:03and it was targeted
42:04against people
42:05of Middle Eastern
42:06appearances
42:07and targeted
42:09against people
42:10that they look
42:11anything different
42:12except
42:14white
42:16blonde
42:17blue eyes
42:18Is there still
42:25a live debate
42:26in Australia
42:26around racism?
42:27Yes
42:28there always will be
42:29I absolutely think
42:34the Cronulla riots
42:35could happen again
42:35in Australia
42:36Cronulla changed us
42:58it was something
43:00we hadn't seen
43:01or had to deal with
43:03before
43:04but I think we want
43:06to think of ourselves
43:07as that
43:07friendly nation
43:09where all are welcome
43:10and we want to avoid
43:11a small ugliness
43:13that exists
43:14and
43:15with Cronulla riots
43:17we were forced
43:18to address it
43:18Absolutely
43:22the Cronulla riots
43:23changed Australia
43:24they gave us
43:26a moment in time
43:27within a place
43:28with people
43:29who acted in
43:30ways that have
43:31forced us to
43:32question and reflect
43:33and to ask
43:34do we want
43:35to go back there
43:36You know what
43:41as horrible
43:42as that day was
43:44and everything
43:44it represented
43:45something good
43:47actually came from it
43:48believe it or not
43:49and that is
43:50how different
43:51groups
43:52right around
43:53Sydney
43:54came together
43:55and said no
43:56in a show
43:57in a show of goodwill
43:57members of the
43:58Islamic community
43:59mixed with surfers
44:00this afternoon
44:01at Maroubra
44:02and Cronulla
44:03There was such
44:04a concerted effort
44:06and it came from
44:07the right place
44:08it was heartfelt
44:09to actually
44:10stamp our foot
44:11and go
44:12this is not
44:12who we are
44:13we can always
44:15overcome our
44:15differences
44:16their religions
44:17are different
44:18but their beliefs
44:19are the same
44:20all they want
44:21is peace
44:22Violence
44:25is not to be
44:26tolerated
44:27it's never
44:27excusable
44:28no matter
44:29who does it
44:29One of the other
44:31things that came
44:32out of Cronulla
44:32is just this idea
44:34that you know
44:35the beach doesn't
44:36belong to the locals
44:37and everyone
44:38should be able
44:39to enjoy it
44:40and some very
44:41enterprising person
44:42came up with the
44:43idea of the
44:44Burkini
44:44to allow women
44:46of the Islamic
44:47faith to be able
44:48to enjoy the beach
44:49in the same way
44:51that the rest of us
44:52can
44:52We recruited
44:55boys and girls
44:56from both areas
44:57we trained together
44:59for a couple of months
45:01we walked the
45:02Kokoda track
45:03together
45:03and it was the first
45:05time a hijabi
45:06Muslim girl
45:07would walk the
45:08Kokoda track
45:09and I went along
45:12with them
45:13on one of those
45:14treks to the
45:15Black Cat track
45:15in Papua New Guinea
45:16I just came away
45:18from that trek
45:20with a really good
45:21feeling about
45:23the young people
45:24of Australia
45:24Cronulla writes
45:29it's 20 years
45:31this year
45:32and we haven't
45:33seen anything
45:34like it since
45:35but we shouldn't
45:36relax
45:37given recent
45:41anti-Semitic
45:42attacks
45:42and even
45:44just some
45:44of the scenes
45:45we've seen
45:45from neo-Nazis
45:46in Melbourne
45:47of late
45:48the tension
45:50is still there
45:51the neo-Nazis
45:53arrived in support
45:54of an anti-trans
45:55rights speaker
45:56that group
45:57met with a
45:57counter-protest
45:58I remember
46:01watching the
46:02January 6
46:03riots
46:04in the US
46:05astounded
46:06by what I
46:07was seeing
46:08going way
46:11back
46:11to what we
46:12saw
46:12at Cronulla
46:13to January 6
46:14so unfortunately
46:18that could
46:19happen again
46:20if Cronulla
46:45happened today
46:46I think we
46:47would be
46:47debating
46:48whether it
46:48was a riot
46:49or not
46:49I don't
46:51think
46:52it would
46:53be
46:54any kind
46:55of constructive
46:56conversation
46:57I think
46:57it would be
46:58each person's
46:59truth
46:59as they
47:00see it
47:01and it's
47:02really
47:02weird
47:03to look
47:04back at
47:05something
47:05like Cronulla
47:06as a time
47:07that I now
47:07think
47:08well wasn't
47:09it nice
47:09that we
47:10actually
47:10then
47:11came together
47:12afterwards
47:13I kind
47:13of long
47:13for that
47:14I personally
47:16don't think
47:17that there
47:17would be
47:18that level
47:18of racial
47:19violence
47:19in this
47:20country
47:20again
47:20or I
47:21certainly
47:21hope not
47:21and hope
47:22the lessons
47:23have been
47:23learned
47:23I came
47:26to Australia
47:26in 1984
47:27and when I
47:29arrived in
47:29Australia
47:30I fell in love
47:32with Australia
47:33and its people
47:33in 2005
47:35I felt
47:37it is
47:38a moment
47:40of Australia's
47:42national
47:42building
47:43Australia
47:45has matured
47:47every nation
47:50as we go
47:51by
47:51we go
47:52through
47:52these
47:52difficulties
47:53but we
47:55learn from
47:56them
47:56Cronulla
47:58gave us
47:59a moment
47:59and it
48:00showed us
48:00an alternative
48:01future
48:02and we've
48:02rejected that
48:03and all that
48:05makes you
48:05really proud
48:06to be
48:06Australian
48:0714 people
48:17had died
48:18and I said
48:19that can't be
48:20true
48:20it was true
48:22and then
48:23the news just
48:24kept getting so
48:25much worse
48:26the monster
48:29a fire
48:30that was
48:30a hundred
48:31k's wide
48:32that changed
48:33Australia
48:34we needed to
48:36know
48:36how the hell
48:38something like
48:39this happened
48:39like Saturday
48:42like you've
48:43never seen
48:44before
48:45if people
48:46had been told
48:47you have to
48:48get out
48:48people would
48:50have lived
48:50next Sunday
48:52810
48:53on 9
48:54on 9
48:56on 9
48:57on 9
48:58on 9
48:59on 9
49:01on 9
49:02on 9
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49:04on 9
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