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Events That Changed Australia - Season 1 Episode 1 -
The Cronulla Riots
The Cronulla Riots
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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
00:30and 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
01:16and it'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
01:35gangs of men of middle eastern origin paying for revenge there was a very quick reckoning that
01:44forced us to question is that what we mean by being a multicultural society this is who we want to be
01:54we woke up to a different country
01:56australia changed overnight
02:10we woke up to a different country
02:23there 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
02:33cornell is a beachside suburb that'd be just over 20 kilometers from the cbd of sydney
02:44it's home to the cornell sharks it's uh 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
02:56sort of place that if you're born there you never want to leave
03:00the demographics of cronola were very anglo-saxon very white very beach surfy orientated a lot
03:11of people worked and wanted to live and their lifestyle was the beach so
03:15young guys as it was the blonde hair blue-eyed we love australia proud of it and we're proud to be here
03:21i was at the surf club on 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 powderfinger
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
04:01cronola it's the only beach side uh suburb in sydney that has the train line that goes to it so
04:17over the years there's been groups like westies bankies sharpies a large number of gang type groups
04:25that have come to cronola 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
04:43in 2005 i was i was the regional commander for area of cronola and all the cbd parts of sydney and so
04:48forth and no matter who you are if you turn up here and want to pull that sort of activity on
04:54you will be arrested so in the lead-up to the actual cronola riots there was quite a build-up of
04:59tension and community issues and local angst where there was um lebanese muslim young youth coming
05:06from the western suburbs to the beach area you had some people who were coming from the western
05:13suburbs of sydney wanting to come and enjoy cronola beach as they should and there was a bit of a clash
05:18of cultures well basically if you come to the beach and you yell at people from a distance
05:23abuse then how can you demand respect that's just rude okay they come up to you and asking for
05:28example if you root and they all laugh those sorts of quite offensive comments which were
05:33really taken badly by young girls but also their fathers their boyfriends husbands and and and so
05:39forth they come down here and they start with their mouth and they just bullshit to everybody
05:44they harass our women it's their religion
05:58in 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 uh local people um standing over young local people for
06:10their money
06:14in 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
06:27all the bad things that happened by individual it will be put under the microscope and portray that
06:35person is atypical of all of us
06:42harassment the stealing the theft uh was just all part and parcel of every summer
06:49i've been rolled i've been jumped i've been walking home from norvies
06:53just walking through the park i've had three dudes sneak up on me
06:58i don't believe there was any issue on the beaches of cronulla about lebanese gang
07:04or anti-social behavior i believe it was a beat up
07:14people think the cronulla riots started on the day of the cronulla riots that's completely wrong
07:19they started well before then
07:28it was something that was simmering away since 2001
07:32we were having conversations around terror around migration i was experiencing that feeling the
07:48sense that i was an outsider that our communities were outsiders and that people weren't comfortable with us
07:55we 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 this sense that the
08:10combination of their ethnicity and their religion meant that they were going to come to australia
08:18be in little huddles of people and not become australian
08:28and then we had a terrible series of gang rapes in sydney
08:34perpetrated by people who happened to be muslim
08:37and were saying disgusting things about aussie girls while they were carrying out those attacks
08:42and 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
09:09so i think a lot of people would be hearing that and feeling a degree of fear and in cronoa you don't
09:16have the same kind of mix as you've got in other parts of sydney where everyone's living alongside
09:23each other from all different walks of life all different faiths all different cultural groups
09:29you get intimidated by them and you're in your own area and you feel like you can't like be safe
09:33asan mcgravis the lakemba resident claims locals have been taunting him saying he's not welcome
09:41in cronulla i'm just here to have fun have a swim and go home and that's it i want no trouble
09:53all of these tensions were there and it was really interesting to see what might actually make those
09:59kinds of underlying tensions explode and all of a sudden boom the major police hunt is underway for
10:07a cowardly group of up to 20 men who attacked two surf lifesavers at cronulla lifesavers had just
10:15finished an eight-hour patrol at north cronulla when they're abused by several men described as of
10:21middle eastern appearance the lifesavers and lifeguards were there and a couple of middle eastern guys had
10:27been kicking the ball around they came over and a couple of words got said and and i think it became
10:32a little bit of the male bravado then became you know push me shove you almost it then became very
10:38much in your face the lifesavers were bashed around the head were kicked and punched the media then turned
10:44that into an almost like circus like event where it was the sons of anzacs have been beaten by the muslim
10:51lebanese almost from the 9 11 attack the terrorists have arrived in sydney
10:59for anyone to attack our aussie icons our lifesavers who put their own lives at risk is just un-australian
11:09something has to be done i don't feel safe to let my children down on that beach again for many this
11:15was not just a brutal crime but an act of sacrilege young volunteer surf lifesavers bashed while giving
11:23up their weekend to help others in all fact it was a local assault and should have been dealt with as
11:28such 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 people
11:46around here are going to start doing something about it you know like it's not going to be a
11:49one-sided affair anymore i was a court reporter in the newsroom at that time it was the outcome they
11:54dreaded outraged by the sentence the father of one victim lashed out in the courtroom i was in my
12:02early 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
12:20this sunday every Aussie in the shire get down to north crinola to help support leb 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 from the sand
12:55breakfast with alan joe's on 2gb 873
13:01my 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'll 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
13:17up with this scum when you've then got inflammatory voices in the media alan jones calling him middle
13:27eastern thugs and it just it kind of gave permission for this to play out as it did
13:36you hear people respected are in command behind the microphone influencing young people saying
13:52these terrible things it was awful issuing a final and blunt warning police have told troublemakers to
14:07stay away from crinola tomorrow and avoid a showdown with frustrated locals you will end up with warfare
14:13in the street so let's just cool it a bit
14:22i think we were prepared for something bad to happen but i don't know if any of us thought it would
14:27be as ugly as it was
14:40a mostly sunny day for the state sydney fine with sunny periods and night to moderate southeast winds
14:47down at crinola there was definitely trouble brewing
14:49it was really hard situation to de-escalate and i think there'd been a shift that the this was no
14:59longer a policing matter and the community wanted to send a very clear signal on terms that they
15:04wish to express themselves so you could definitely feel that escalation
15:09i was at the surf club on that particular day the day started off overcast and very much of um i
15:23thought well this is going to be a bit of a dud day
15:30sunday december 11 looked like any other sunday at crinola beach
15:34people turning up going for a swim probably a few more people there than normal but not in the morning
15:48and 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
16:26there was there was a soundtrack a pub rock australian soundtrack
16:35so on the actual day of the crinola riots my role i was the police commander in charge of the whole
16:39situation it was more like a carnival atmosphere if you like um there's about a crowd of about 5 000
16:45people and people had turned up there
16:58initially it was primarily a protest um it was a protest against the assault on the lifeguards
17:04it's about those three lifesavers that got bashed and it's not cool doing their job down here doing
17:13their job saving lives you know like they go out they risk their neck every week
17:20it was a protest about reclaiming the beach from the
17:23they 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 bodies on they come down to harass and
17:39they've been coming down here hanging out at the wall making it unsafe for people to walk around
17:43here at night mate it's just enough we just had enough we love everyone we're not righteous we've
17:48had 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
18:28the 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
18:57as the sun then came out all the young fellows were arriving we're all carrying two dutch packs
19:02over their 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
19:36there 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 they come
20:06here in groups groups of 10 15 they harass and intimidate women if they're going to harass us
20:12then they're not welcome they need to show respect they don't show us any respect we're sick of the disrespect
20:17they're sicky and they try and eat on us and we just don't like it and we've one guy asked for a cigarette and he didn't even smoke
20:24that's why we're all here today
20:26yeah hey you're a sicker get away
20:32that's it
20:35so yeah pretty much we just want them to leave us alone and just and get the out of the car
20:40so 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
21:31i think that he's going to blow
21:36what's really strange
22:05about the cronulla riots
22:08is it was a one-sided right it was just this huge mob of mainly young aussie blokes it wasn't
22:16like you've got a gang here and a gang here and 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 the crowd was turning on them
22:28these are not thugs that these are just poor innocent people who've probably didn't even know
22:37what was going to be happening in cronulla that day
22:39i mean how frightening for some of these people
22:53who had nothing to do with what was going on
22:55but they looked different so they were chased
23:05who had in a real time moment of oh my god goodness this is
23:19I had in a real time moment of oh my goodness this is what racism looks like when it's right
23:39there in front of me being played out in violence
23:49although 2005 doesn't seem that long ago when you look back at that time we really didn't
23:57understand that we did frame ourselves as a white Australia and an other I see myself as an Aussie
24:17but I never really saw that reflected back to me but what Cronulla did was really put that up in
24:25lights and really put it on the main stage at one stage even in the in the crowd there was a a couple
24:44of young men from Bangladesh that turned up in their vehicle and inadvertently end up among the mob
24:49you know they were from Bangladesh not even from the Middle East
24:58the crowd sensed that there was something happening there was a train load of people supposedly coming
25:17in from the western suburbs so suddenly you've got this mad crowd rushing towards the station
25:26when they got to the station they got onto a train which had just arrived
25:41and 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 by the drunken crowd on those two young men
26:06Craig Campbell who was sergeant in charge of the commuter crime unit at the time
26:12he pulled out his baton and he single-handedly he took on that entire carriage full of drunken yobbers
26:21now that's one of the bravest things that I've ever seen
26:30no doubt he saved the lives of those two young men on the train that day
26:49really quickly after that people left the station
26:55and they returned down to the beach
26:59you know as a photographer I photographed a lot of war zones but this was a little bit different
27:10so in the corner of my eye I noticed a man running out of a stairwell and there's like three or four
27:17people chasing him just giving haymaker king hits and I realized I've got to keep clicking the victim
27:24in this case ran onto a street and then sort of refuge on the back of a ute and so he was covering his
27:31head and blocking the blows more and more people piling in the fists turn into beer bottles and they're
27:39slamming these beer bottles on his head but at that moment a police officer came in with capsicum spray
27:45but I quickly realized this ain't over and this could actually get a whole lot worse
27:56people started throwing stubbies
28:19and I think one of the first ones that came in managed to hit me on the head
28:28because I was covered in blood
28:32I think that's where probably where the policing had then stepped up
28:41and started organizing crowd control
28:45it eventually quietened down
28:50but any thought that that was the end
28:56we were so wrong
28:58there was so much more to come
29:00and it was going to get really ugly again
29:03I lived with my community and I know they're not going to take it laying down
29:08and that's the message that 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 is the revenge attacks
29:33retaliation there was so much anger in the community
29:38the people in the outer suburbs of Sydney
29:42who've now watched the TV news and seen people who look like them being chased and bashed
29:48they then decided to get their revenge
29:51so they jumped in their cars and they headed towards Cronulla
29:56the public are probably not aware to this day of the actual level of threat
30:03and the level of violence that was occurring
30:05gangs of men of Middle Eastern origin baying 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
30:21residents throughout Sydney South are literally living in fear
30:26no one knows where or who these roaming gangs will strike next
30:30the most serious incident came outside a golf club
30:33when a car pulled up alongside Daniel Gray and his friends
30:36the car doors flew open and you know four guys started running
30:42one of the guys called he had get those Aussie sluts
30:45at that stage I had one on either side of my head kicking my head
30:50the next thing Daniel knew he'd been stabbed in the back so forcefully
30:54that the knife's handle had snapped
30:57anyone of any Caucasian on the street were bashed for no other reason
31:02than the fact that they were Caucasian
31:04violently bashed
31:05some with weapons including baseball bats
31:08driven by hatred the Middle Eastern mob was on the move for the second straight night
31:18and they were true to their word
31:22at least 30 car loads of men managed to make it into the shire
31:27the men adopted the tactics of smashing and then running
31:31I was walking back from the 7-eleven just going to get a can of drink
31:40I heard some yelling and screaming across the road looked across
31:44next thing I know some guy had run across from me I heard running and like a screaming
31:49I turned up that's the first guy that throws the beer bottle at me
31:53a fact in this arcove here and next thing I know there's 20-30 guys hitting me
31:59hit hit hit just getting hit in the head
32:03the next thing I can remember there was a steel bar coming up and hitting me
32:08and I don't know what happened from then
32:11police found knuckle dusters
32:17iron bars
32:18baseball bats
32:20other clubs
32:22knives
32:24guns
32:26shootings into buildings and shop windows
32:28really violent revenge attacks occurring in multiple suburbs and sometimes at multiple places at once
32:35and inexplicably it wasn't just caucasians who were the targets
32:39Lebanese man 6-7 car get up in the street in my shop and tried to hit me and said I'm gonna kill you
32:47and hit my shop
32:48I think I'm gonna get killed I didn't think I can get away with it
32:54it was kind of a scary time where it didn't matter where you lived you didn't want to go
33:00out at night
33:01I'm not sure that any police force in the world that I'm aware of had before experienced these marauding and rampaging mobile gangs
33:12one of the boys I was there and he said doc come on I want to show you something
33:18took 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 of machine guns
33:27and all that sort of things
33:29and I said listen close it down we don't want to have any of this
33:33the police are on our side
33:37we're gonna respect the law
33:39because if it is
33:40all this got the bigger guns
33:42all this got is more violent
33:44that's not the way you build a society
33:46the revenge attacks
33:52were so confronting
33:54but
33:54I think what people don't know is
33:56they could have been a whole lot worse
33:58I think the police did a great job of keeping that quiet
34:01and it's taken a long time for those facts to come out
34:04police were receiving
34:06very high level intelligence
34:07from our own intelligence sources
34:10for instance
34:12information the following weekend
34:13there is going to be a drive-by shooting
34:15using machine guns
34:17at the
34:17into the beer garden of the North Cronulla Hotel
34:20we conducted a
34:24a covert undercover police operation
34:26that was run
34:27that took a hand grenade off the black market
34:31that was attempted to be
34:32thrown into that beer garden
34:33from a moving car going past
34:35and we literally took off the streets
34:37truckloads of weapons
34:39five people have been arrested
34:42for the possession of Molotov cocktails
34:44and we believe that they were intending
34:46to use those weapons
34:48they found machine guns
34:50the police found Molotov cocktails
34:52grenades
34:53another one was Westfield's at Miranda
34:57in the Thursday night before Christmas
34:59we had very good intelligence
35:01that there was going to be an attack done on that
35:03and we saw recently
35:04what happened with one offender at Bondi
35:06well there was going to be 50 people
35:09pull up out the front
35:10and rampage through the shopping centre
35:11with knives
35:12guns
35:12baseball bats
35:13can you imagine
35:18had any of those attacks gone ahead
35:20in our country
35:23this is Australia
35:25for a good chunk of Australians
35:30it made them realise
35:32that the kind of anti-Muslim sentiment
35:34that they'd started to get used to
35:36in the media
35:37could actually have
35:38real serious impacts
35:41it's my view that the Cronulla riots
35:52were a turning point
35:53in Australia's history
35:54police eventually got on top of it
36:01as they always do
36:02but not without special new powers
36:04that had to be introduced
36:06and given to the police
36:08unprecedented powers
36:10where they were able to
36:10stop vehicles
36:11check licences
36:12at least 30 car loads of men
36:14managed to make it into the Shire
36:16several were stopped
36:18and searched by police
36:19I know I've got nothing
36:21you could not get into that suburb
36:23unless you went through a police block
36:24submit yourself to a search
36:26and your vehicle to a search
36:27and it's very draconian level
36:32of powers
36:33that have never been 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 the specific problem
36:43of racial unrest
36:44I covered courts
36:52and the police did an extraordinary job
36:54in their investigations
36:56in the days afterwards
36:57so I saw a lot of them
36:59from both sides
37:00police allege
37:01he was part of the mob
37:03which stormed a train
37:04bashing two Middle Eastern men
37:06and you hear their backstory
37:08and never been involved
37:10in anything like this before
37:12ashamed of their involvement in it
37:15would swear to the magistrate
37:17that this is not the person they were
37:19and I always just felt like going
37:20look what you've done to your mother
37:22did you have a chance
37:23to speak to your son
37:24sorry no comment
37:25Hattie Khawaja had a handful
37:27of supporters in court
37:28they didn't take kindly
37:30to the cameras waiting outside
37:32what the f*** are you doing
37:33step up
37:35where the f*** are you hearing Brian
37:36on the night of the December 11 riots
37:3924 year old Khawaja
37:40climbed Brighton-Lisanne's RSL
37:43and stole an Australian flag
37:45then in front of 150 Lebanese men
37:48set in the light
37:49the magistrate said it was incomprehensible
37:53that Khawaja burnt the Australian flag
37:56three days after being sentenced
37:58to 500 hours community service
38:00for embezzlement
38:01he described the crime
38:03as extreme vandalism
38:04sentencing him to three months jail
38:06I think a lot of people felt uneasy
38:11about the fact that the Australian flag
38:13was so present
38:14what was pronounced to me
38:19was how the Australian flag
38:20was used as a kind of call to arms
38:22for all those people
38:23who were really angry
38:24for a time
38:31I feel the flag represented
38:34a racist white Australia
38:37I think there were such
38:39ugly connotations
38:42that went with anyone
38:43who carried a flag
38:44for me
38:51the flag that was representative
38:54of the country that 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 that
39:03you know
39:03if nothing else
39:04represented my country
39:06suddenly became
39:08a tool of fear for me
39:10and so there was I think
39:18a very quick reckoning
39:19that something horrible
39:22had happened here
39:23that this was a questioning
39:24of who we were
39:25and looking to those institutions
39:28police, courts
39:30to stabilise this
39:31post-cronulla
39:36we had politicians
39:37we had media even
39:39and we had community leaders
39:41stepping in
39:41it's about finding out
39:43where we're heading
39:45and how we can work together
39:46we could see
39:47a 60 minutes grapple
39:49with an audience
39:50on the issues
39:52there's never been anything
39:53quite 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 obnoxious
40:05criminal thuggish behaviour
40:07has been underway
40:08for 10 years
40:09so what you're trying
40:10to tell me right now
40:11that if we were to grab
40:12our community
40:13all these so-called
40:15thugs
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
40:20are you serious
40:22I'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
40:34lady in front
40:37what do you have to say
40:38we can walk to school
40:39for our five 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
40:52when Aussies think
40:52that they're targeted
40:53just because they're white
40:54that is not true
40:55we 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
41:05aren'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
41:12we still ask ourselves
41:14who are we
41:15as a nation
41:16I don't think
41:18we've moved beyond
41:19that yet
41:19it was not racially
41:26motivated at all
41:27it was more to do
41:29with the behaviour
41:30that was being exhibited
41:31that was then racially
41:33badged
41:33by local people
41:36who had had
41:36detentions were building
41:38up and they'd had
41:38enough of it
41:39we lived through
41:46the coronal days
41:46we lived through
41:48before coronal 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 way
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
43:30in ways
43:31that have forced
43:31us to question
43:32and 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
43:57of 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 differences
44:16their religions
44:17are different
44:18but their beliefs
44:19are the same
44:20all they want
44:21is peace
44:22violence is not
44:26to be tolerated
44:27it's never excusable
44:28no matter who
44:29does 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
44:35doesn't belong
44:36to the locals
44:37and everyone
44:39should be able
44:39to enjoy it
44:40and some very
44:41enterprising person
44:42came up with
44:43the idea
44:43of the burkini
44:44to allow
44:46women of the
44:46Islamic faith
44:47to be able
44:48to enjoy the beach
44:49in the same way
44:51that the rest
44:51of us can
44:52we recruited
44:55boys and girls
44:56from both areas
44:57we trained together
44:59for a couple
45:00of months
45:01we walked
45:02the Kokoda track
45:03together
45:03and it was
45:04the first time
45:05a hijabi
45:06Muslim girl
45:07would walk
45:07the Kokoda track
45:09and I went
45:12along with them
45:13on one of those
45:14treks
45:14to the Black Cat
45:15track in Papua New Guinea
45:16yeah I just
45:18came away
45:18from that trek
45:20with a really
45:21good feeling
45:22about the young
45:23people of 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 just
45:44some of 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 was
46:07seeing
46:08going way back
46:11to what we saw
46:12at Cronulla
46:13to January 6
46:14so unfortunately
46:18that could
46:19happen again
46:20and in a way
46:23that's enabled
46:25today by our
46:25social media
46:26is far more
46:27connected
46:27we had text
46:28messages around
46:29the Cronulla
46:29time
46:30but as you saw
46:31with January 6
46:32the amplification
46:34of Trump's message
46:35and how that
46:35gets shared
46:36I think the
46:39conditions are
46:40there
46:40this could
46:40absolutely
46:41happen
46:41if Cronulla
46:45happened today
46:46I think we
46:47would be debating
46:48whether it was
46:48a riot or not
46:49I don't think
46:52it would
46:53be any kind
46:55of constructive
46:56conversation
46:57I think it would
46:58be each person's
46:59truth
46:59as they see it
47:01and it's really
47:02weird
47:03to look back
47:05at something
47:05like Cronulla
47:06as a time
47:07that I now think
47:08well wasn't it
47:09nice that we
47:10actually then
47:11came together
47:12afterwards
47:13I kind of
47:13longed for that
47:14I personally
47:16don't think
47:17that there would
47:17be that level
47:18of racial violence
47:19in this country
47:20again or I
47:21certainly hope
47:21not
47:21and hope the
47:22lessons have
47:23been learnt
47:23I came to
47:26Australia in
47:261984
47:27and when I
47:29arrived in
47:29Australia
47:30I fell in
47:31love with
47:32Australia and
47:33its 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
47:48every 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 a
47:59moment
47:59and it
48:00showed us
48:00an alternative
48:01future
48:02and we've
48:02rejected that
48:03and all
48:05that makes
48:05you really
48:06proud to be
48:06Australian
48:0714 people
48:17had died
48:18and I said
48:19that can't
48:20be true
48:20it was
48:22true
48:22and then
48:23the news
48:24just kept
48:25getting so
48:25much worse
48:26the monster
48:29a fire
48:30that was
48:30100
48:31k's wide
48:32that changed
48:33Australia
48:34we needed
48:36to know
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
48:46told you
48:47have to
48:48get out
48:48people
48:49would have
48:50lived
48:50next Sunday
48:52810
48:53on 9
48:54500
48:56people
48:57like
48:58you
48:59no
49:00love
49:01you
49:01I
49:03love
49:03you
49:03love
49:05more
49:06than
49:06I
49:08love
49:08it
49:09I
49:10love
49:10you
49:11love
49:12not
49:12I
49:13love
49:13you
49:15is
49:18God
49:18John
49:20love
49:20and
49:22ton
49:22me
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