🏘️ Events That Changed Australia (2025) - Season 1 Episode 1
Sydney's Cronulla Beach became the site of an organized, race-driven riot in December 2005. In Episode 1 "The Cronulla Riots", expert voices and rare footage reveal how a single day of violence sparked a national reckoning on identity, multiculturalism, and justice. What really happened... and how did it change Australia forever?
🔹 Episode Highlights:
• December 2005: the 48 hours that shocked a nation
• Eyewitness accounts: victims, perpetrators & first responders speak
• Media's role: how coverage amplified tensions across Australia
• Legal aftermath: trials, inquiries & policy changes that followed
• Signature documentary depth: archival footage + expert analysis
🔹 Series Info:
• Format: Historical Documentary / Social Issue Serial
• Original Network: Nine Network (Australia) / 9Now / International Syndication
• Series Launch: Dec 7, 2025 | Season: 1 | Episode: 1 | Title: "The Cronulla Riots"
• Setting: Cronulla Beach, Sydney, Australia | Language: English
• Runtime: ~48 minutes (full) | Clip/Highlight version: ~10-15 min
🎧 Prefer audio? Listen to Australian history podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts for deeper context.
👉 Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "Did the Cronulla Riots change Australian society? 👇" Turn on notifications 🔔 for Episode 2!
#ShowTVMovies #EventsThatChangedAustralia #NineNetwork #CronullaRiots #S01E01 #AustralianHistory #Documentary #SocialIssues #BingeWatch #Australia
⚠️ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Events That Changed Australia" belong to Nine Network, Ronde Media, and associated producers. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
Sydney's Cronulla Beach became the site of an organized, race-driven riot in December 2005. In Episode 1 "The Cronulla Riots", expert voices and rare footage reveal how a single day of violence sparked a national reckoning on identity, multiculturalism, and justice. What really happened... and how did it change Australia forever?
🔹 Episode Highlights:
• December 2005: the 48 hours that shocked a nation
• Eyewitness accounts: victims, perpetrators & first responders speak
• Media's role: how coverage amplified tensions across Australia
• Legal aftermath: trials, inquiries & policy changes that followed
• Signature documentary depth: archival footage + expert analysis
🔹 Series Info:
• Format: Historical Documentary / Social Issue Serial
• Original Network: Nine Network (Australia) / 9Now / International Syndication
• Series Launch: Dec 7, 2025 | Season: 1 | Episode: 1 | Title: "The Cronulla Riots"
• Setting: Cronulla Beach, Sydney, Australia | Language: English
• Runtime: ~48 minutes (full) | Clip/Highlight version: ~10-15 min
🎧 Prefer audio? Listen to Australian history podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts for deeper context.
👉 Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "Did the Cronulla Riots change Australian society? 👇" Turn on notifications 🔔 for Episode 2!
#ShowTVMovies #EventsThatChangedAustralia #NineNetwork #CronullaRiots #S01E01 #AustralianHistory #Documentary #SocialIssues #BingeWatch #Australia
⚠️ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Events That Changed Australia" belong to Nine Network, Ronde Media, and associated producers. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
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FunTranscript
00:17Cronulla riots December 11 2005 changed us
00:25we want to think of ourselves as that friendly nation where all are welcome and we want to avoid
00:31a small ugliness that that exists
00:34and with Cronulla riots we're forced to address it
00:45Cronulla riots were a turning point in Australia's history
00:51people think the Cronulla riots started on the day of the Cronulla riots that's completely wrong
01:01Cronulla was a weaponizing of the flag to represent certain politics that was anti-immigration a lot
01:14of the things that we saw that day we never showed on television we considered them too scary and it's
01:21only now 20 years on that we're seeing some of that vision but I don't know if any of us
01:32thought it
01:33would be as ugly as it was machine guns Molotov cocktails grenades
01:42gangs of men of Middle Eastern origin paying for revenge there was a very quick reckoning that
01:49forced us to question is that what we mean by being a multicultural society this is who we want
01:55to be we woke up to a different country Australia changed overnight
02:28there are very few things that still remain quintessentially Australian but the beach being a free place for
02:34everybody it's just a very very Australian idea
02:41Cronulla is a beachside suburb that'd be just over 20 kilometres from the CBD of Sydney
02:48it's home to the Cronulla Sharks it's where former Prime Minister Scott Morrison had his electorate we
02:57sometimes joke calling it God's country or the insular peninsula because it tends to be the sort of place
03:02that if you're born there you never want to leave the demographics of Cronulla were very Anglo-Saxon very
03:11white very beach surfy orientated a lot of people worked and wanted to live in their lifestyle was the
03:19beach so young guys as it was the blonde hair blue-eyed I was at the surf club on that
03:28day and doing my
03:28patrols and observing everything that was going on at the beach 2005 what was I listening to there would
03:38have been some powder finger probably some spider bite a little bit of black Betty black Betty it was
03:48a very masculine rambunctious and had that real rock and roll swagger I was definitely listening to a
03:58a lot of that pop hip-hop R&B black eyed peas God it's actually a great time
04:14Cronulla is the only beachside suburb in Sydney that has the train line that goes to it so over the
04:22years
04:23there's been groups like Westies Bankies sharpies a large number of gang type groups that have come
04:30to Cronulla and got into conflict with the local surface and it's about territory and it's about
04:37behavior down there and expectations because the surface can be quite territorial in their nature
04:48in 2005 I was I was the regional commander for area of Cronulla and all the CBD parts of Sydney
04:53and
04:53so forth and no matter who you are if you turn up here and want to pull that sort of
04:58activity on you
04:59will be arrested so in the lead-up to the actual Cronulla riots there was quite a build-up of
05:04tension
05:04and community issues and local angst where there was Lebanese Muslim young youth coming from the
05:12western suburbs to the beach area you had some people who were coming from the western suburbs of
05:19Sydney wanting to come and enjoy Cronulla Beach as they should and there was a bit of a clash of
05:24cultures well basically if you come to the beach and you yell at people from a distance abuse then
05:29how can you demand respect that's just rude here they come up to you and ask you for example if
05:33you're
05:34cute and they all laugh those sorts of quite offensive comments which were really taken badly by young
05:40girls but also their fathers their boyfriends husbands and and and so forth they come down
05:45here and they start with their mouth and they just bullshit everybody they harass our women it's their
06:02in the early 2000s it was the young Muslims that were involved in the gang style behavior strutting through
06:08the malls in gangs fights with young local people standing over young local people for their money
06:19in 2005 I was elected to be the president of the La Kimba sports club Australian of the Muslim faith
06:28we were under
06:29pressure we felt that all the bad things that happened by individual it will be put under the microscope
06:38and portray that person is atypical of all of us
06:47harassment the stealing the theft was just all part and parcel of every summer
06:54I've been rolled I've been jumped I've been walking home from norvies just walking through the park I've had three
07:00dudes sneak up on me I don't believe there was any issue on the beaches of Cronulla about Lebanese gang
07:09or anti-social behavior I believe it was a beat-up people think the Cronulla riots started on the day
07:21of
07:22the Cronulla riots that's completely wrong they started well before then it was something that
07:34was simmering away since 2001 we were having conversations around terror around migration I
07:51was experiencing that feeling the sense that I was an outsider that our communities were outsiders
07:58and that people weren't comfortable with us we were a multicultural nation we were becoming more
08:05multicultural but there are a lot of tensions particularly around Australians from Arab backgrounds
08:11there was the sense that the combination of their ethnicity and their religion meant that they
08:20were going to come to Australia be in little huddles of people and not become Australian
08:32and then we had a terrible series of gang rapes in Sydney perpetrated by people who happened to be
08:41Muslim and were saying disgusting things about Aussie girls while they were carrying out those attacks
08:48an 18 year old girl who gets off the suburban train with some Lebanese Australian men when she has been
08:55sexually assaulted by 14 men and raped 25 times the victims were all Caucasian women aged between 13 and 18
09:04those convicted all Lebanese Muslim youths I was quote an Aussie pig and these people were making out that I
09:12was
09:12some sort of a lesser being so I think a lot of people would be hearing that and feeling a
09:18degree of fear and in Cronulla
09:20you don't have the same kind of mix as you've got in other parts of Sydney where everyone's living alongside
09:28each other from all different walks of life all different faiths all different cultural groups
09:33you get intimidated by them and you're in your own area and you feel like you can't like be safe
09:40Hassan Meghravis the Lakemba resident claims locals have been taunting him saying he's not welcome in Cronulla
09:46I'm just here to have fun have a swim and go home and that's it I don't want no trouble
09:57all of these tensions were there and it was really interesting to see what might actually make those kinds of
10:04underlying tensions explode
10:07and all of a sudden boom
10:10a major police hunt is underway for a cowardly group of up to 20 men who attacked two surf lifesavers
10:17at Cronulla
10:19lifesavers are just finished an eight-hour patrol at North Cronulla when they're abused by several men described as of
10:26Middle Eastern appearance
10:27the lifesavers and lifeguards were there and a couple of Middle Eastern guys had been kicking the ball around
10:33they came over and a couple of words got said and and I think it became a little bit of
10:38the male bravado then became you know push me shove you almost
10:41it then became very much in your face the lifesavers were bashed around the head were kicked and punched
10:47the media then turned that into an almost like circus like event where it was the sons of Anzacs have
10:54been beaten by the Muslim Lebanese almost
10:57from the 9-11 attack the terrorists have arrived in Sydney
11:04for anyone to attack our Aussie icons our lifesavers who put their own lives at risk is just un-Australian
11:14something has to be done I don't feel safe to let my children down on that beach again
11:19for many this was not just a brutal crime but an act of sacrilege
11:24young volunteer surf lifesavers bashed while giving up their weekend to help others
11:30in all fact it was a local assault and should have been dealt with as such but it was a
11:34very very big build-up in the media at the time
11:41the feeling that that erupted out locally it was massive
11:44this attack is not Australian and it's absolutely unacceptable as far as we're concerned
11:49finally everyone's had enough of it
11:50people around here are going to start doing something about it you know like
11:53it's not going to be a one-sided affair anymore
11:56I was a court reporter in the newsroom at that time
11:58it was the outcome they dreaded
12:00outranged by the sentence the father of one victim lashed out in the courtroom
12:04I was in my early mid-twenties
12:09you could feel the tension building
12:12there were all these text messages going back and forth
12:16something like 270,000
12:20locals have received a text message asking them to reclaim the beach
12:25this Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to help support
12:32Lib and Wag bashing day
12:34let's claim back our Shire
12:37you look at the lead-up
12:40it almost seems in a way like it was inevitable
12:44that it was going to happen or come to a head
12:46it's pretty much a turf war
12:48and it's in danger of spreading from the sand
13:06my suggestion is to invite one of the biker gangs to be present in numbers at Cronulla railway station
13:10when these Lebanese thugs arrive
13:12it'd be worth the price of admission
13:14to watch these cowards scurry back onto the train for the return trip to their lairs
13:19Australians old and new
13:20shouldn't have to put up with this scum
13:24when you've then got inflammatory voices in the media
13:29Alan Jones calling them Middle Eastern thugs
13:33and it just, it kind of gave permission for this to play out as it did
13:43Cronulla's a very long beach and it's been taken over by this scum
13:45it's not a few causing trouble, it's all of them
13:49you hear people respected are in command behind the microphone
13:55influencing young people saying these terrible things
13:59it was awful
14:01Nicodem!
14:01Nicodem!
14:01Nicodem!
14:06Nicodem!
14:08Issuing a final and blunt warning
14:10police have told troublemakers
14:12to stay away from Cronulla tomorrow
14:14and avoid a showdown with frustrated locals
14:16You will end up with warfare in the street
14:19so let's just cool it a bit
14:26I think we were prepared for something bad to happen
14:31but I don't know if any of us thought it would be as ugly as it was.
14:45A mostly sunny day for the state.
14:47Sydney fine with sunny periods and night to moderate south-east winds.
14:52Down at Cronulla, there was definitely trouble brewing.
14:58It was a really hard situation to de-escalate,
15:01and I think there'd been a shift that this was no longer a policing matter
15:05and the community wanted to send a very clear signal
15:08on terms that they wished to express themselves.
15:12So you could definitely feel that escalation.
15:20I was at the surf club on that particular day.
15:24The day started off overcast and very much of my thought,
15:29well, this is going to be a bit of a dud day.
15:35Sunday, December 11, looked like any other Sunday at Cronulla Beach.
15:41People turning up, going for a swim.
15:44Probably a few more people there than normal, but not in the morning.
15:53And then more and more people coming.
15:55Australian flags wrapped around people's heads.
16:03My recollections now of a lot of young men,
16:05a lot of shirts off, tattoos, Australian flags.
16:09So it's definitely like a humanity and a crowd.
16:13People having parties on balconies.
16:22So it felt like an Australia day.
16:24There were eskies, there were flags.
16:27On the other, on the other!
16:31So there was a soundtrack, a pub rock Australian soundtrack.
16:40So on the actual day of the Cronulla riots,
16:42my role, I was the police commander in charge of the whole situation.
16:45It was more like a carnival atmosphere, if you like.
16:48There was about a crowd of about 5,000 people had turned up there.
16:52Go, you Aussies!
16:55Hello, boys!
16:56Aussies!
16:58Can I ask you, boy, you're carrying the flags today?
17:01Because Australia, you've got to be proud.
17:03Initially, it was primarily a protest.
17:05It was a protest against the assault on the lifeguards.
17:12It's about those three lifesavers that got bussed,
17:15and it's not cool.
17:16They're doing their job.
17:17Down here, doing their job, saving lives.
17:20You know, like, they go out, they risk their neck every week.
17:25It was a protest about reclaiming the beach
17:28from the, they believe, locally terrorising almost of their suburb
17:34by youth from the western suburbs.
17:36We're sick and tired of just being harassed on the beach.
17:39They don't come with their beach towels.
17:41They don't come down to have a swim.
17:42They haven't got their bodies on.
17:43They come down to harass.
17:44I mean, they've been coming down here,
17:46hanging out at the wall,
17:47making it unsafe for people to walk around here at night.
17:49Mate, it's just enough.
17:51We've just had enough.
17:52We love everyone.
17:52We're not righteous.
17:53We've had enough.
17:55We've had enough.
17:56Aussie! Aussie!
17:59Aussie!
18:01Aussie!
18:01Aussie! Aussie!
18:02Aussie!
18:03Aussie!
18:04Most people who went there were getting on the cans.
18:07And then before you know it,
18:09one knucklehead leads to two knuckleheads,
18:11leads to three.
18:13You know, a lot of the things that we saw that day,
18:16we never showed on television.
18:18We considered them too scary, too incendiary.
18:22This is our beach, and we want it back!
18:26Fuck these!
18:27We want our fucking beach!
18:30We're not taking enough shit from these fucking Lebanese!
18:33The decision was made
18:34that we wouldn't inflame the situation any further.
18:37Let's fucking get up!
18:41And it's only now,
18:4320 years on,
18:44that we're seeing some of
18:46that vision.
18:47Get home, my sister!
18:48Get fucked!
19:02As the sun then came out,
19:04all the young fellows were arriving,
19:06we were all carrying two dutch packs
19:07over their shoulders of beer.
19:09Oh, mate!
19:11And it was just getting bigger and bigger.
19:14I'm very good on our men.
19:16I'm walking our men,
19:17just to come and watch, mate.
19:18And louder and louder.
19:19People walking around with like
19:21patterns of beer men.
19:22As people were getting drunker and drunker,
19:24and the day was getting hotter and hotter.
19:26Boys, get down here,
19:27help us out!
19:28It's all on!
19:30So it was growing.
19:34Yeah, I remember
19:35some of the massive people were.
19:37It was just people sort of standing around.
19:38It reminded me of like
19:39being at a gig, right?
19:40Like at a music festival.
19:47There was like an aimlessness.
19:55It was peculiar.
20:05People will not tolerate Muslims in our society.
20:08They do nothing.
20:09All they do,
20:10they harass our women.
20:11They come here in groups.
20:12Groups of 10, 15,
20:14they harass and intimidate women.
20:16If they're going to harass us,
20:17then they're not welcome.
20:18They need to show us respect.
20:20Yeah, they don't show us any respect.
20:21We're sick of the disrespect.
20:23They did.
20:24It's sickening.
20:24And they try and hit on us
20:25and we just don't like it.
20:27And one guy asked for a cigarette
20:29and he didn't even smoke.
20:30That's why we're all here today.
20:32Yeah!
20:32Hey, you're a cigarette!
20:34Get away!
20:37That's it!
20:40So yeah, pretty much,
20:41we just want them to leave us alone
20:43and just get the fuck out of our country.
20:46Go home!
20:53So by early afternoon,
20:56the crowd had become hostile,
20:58drunk, whipped up, revved up.
21:00Fuck the police!
21:01Fuck the police!
21:02And I remember the moment
21:04when the chanting started.
21:06Fuck the police!
21:07Fuck the police!
21:08And that felt like a real turning point.
21:11Fuck the police!
21:12Fuck the police!
21:13Everything changed in that moment
21:15when no-one was safe.
21:16Fuck off the police!
21:18Fuck off the police!
21:19Fuck off the police!
21:20I think the words
21:21F off Lebs
21:23was really shocking.
21:25Fuck off Lebs!
21:27Fuck off Lebs!
21:27Fuck off Lebs!
21:28Hysteria is hyping up dramatically.
21:31Fuck off Lebs!
21:33Go Australia!
21:36And I think that he's going to blow.
21:37Burn up Lebs!
21:40It's all on the streets!
21:44Stop Lebs!
21:47game of beauty!
21:56Character falou
22:10What's really strange about the Cronulla riots is it was a one-sided right it was just this
22:17huge mob of mainly young Aussie blokes it wasn't like you've got a gang here in a gang here and
22:24they're fighting in the streets of Cronulla anyone who didn't look like them anyone who
22:31didn't have blonde hair and white the crowd was turning on them these are not thugs that
22:41these are just poor innocent people who've probably didn't even know it was going to
22:44be happening in Cronulla that day I mean how frightening for some of these people
22:59who had nothing to do with what was going on
23:05but they look different so they were chased
23:18go fucking home go fucking home
23:38I had in a real time moment of oh my goodness this is what racism looks like when it's right
23:45there in
23:45front of me being played out in violence although 2005 doesn't seem that long ago when you look back
24:01at that time we really didn't understand that we did frame ourselves as a white Australia and an
24:08other I see myself as an Aussie but I never really saw that reflected back to me but what Cronulla
24:28did
24:29was really put that up in lights and really put it on the main stage
24:46at one stage even in the in the crowd there was a a couple of young men from Bangladesh that
24:52turned up in their vehicle and inadvertently end up among the mob
25:17the crowd sensed that there was something happening there was a trainload of people supposedly coming in
25:23from the western suburbs so suddenly you got this mad crowd rushing towards the station
25:42when they got to the station they got on to a train which had just arrived
25:50and there were two young Arabic boys on that train
25:58who had no real knowledge of what was even occurring
26:04there was an extremely violent attack by the drunken crowd on those two young men
26:14craig campbell who was sergeant in charge of the commuter crime unit at the time he pulled out his baton
26:20and he
26:20single-handedly they took on that entire carriage full of drunken yobbers
26:33now that's one of the bravest things that I've ever seen
26:52no doubt he saved the lives of those two young men on the train that day
26:58really quickly after that people left the station
27:03and they returned down to the beach
27:12you know as a photographer I photographed a lot of war zones but this was a little bit different
27:18so in the corner of my eye I noticed a man running out of a stairwell and there's like three
27:23or four
27:23people chasing him just giving haymaker king hits and I realized I've got to keep clicking the victim in
27:30this case ran onto a street and then sought refuge on the back of a ute and so he was
27:37covering his head and blocking the blows more and more people piling in the fist turn into beer bottles and
27:45they're slamming these beer bottles
27:47on his head
27:48but at that moment a police officer came in with capsicum spray
27:56but I quickly realized this ain't over
28:00and this could actually get a whole lot worse
28:22people started throwing stubbies
28:25people started throwing stubbies
28:32came in managed to hit me on the head
28:36because I was covered in blood
28:43I think that's where probably where the policing had then stepped up
28:49and started organizing crowd control
28:54it eventually quietened down
29:01but any thought that that was the end
29:03we were so wrong
29:05there was so much more to come
29:06and it was going to get really ugly again
29:10I lived with my community and I know they're not going to take it laying down
29:14and that's the message that I've told people in authority
29:19this is not going to go without a reaction
29:33I think one of the untold stories of Cronulla riots is the revenge attacks
29:40retaliation there was so much anger in the community
29:46the people in the outer suburbs of Sydney
29:48have now watched the TV news
29:50and seen people who look like them being chased and bashed
29:55they then decided to get their revenge
29:59so they jumped in their cars and they headed towards Cronulla
30:04the public are probably not aware to this day of the actual level of threat
30:09and the level of violence that was occurring
30:11gangs of men of Middle Eastern origin
30:14baying for revenge
30:18this 45 year old man
30:19randomly selected by a gang
30:21as he put his garbage bins on the footpath
30:23he survived the beating
30:25but has broken ribs and head injuries
30:29residents throughout Sydney South are literally living in fear
30:32no one knows where or who these roaming gangs will strike next
30:36the most serious incident came outside a golf club
30:39when a car pulled up alongside Daniel Gray and his friends
30:43the car doors flew open and you know four guys started running
30:48one of the guys called he out get those Aussie sluts
30:52at that stage I had one on either side of my head kicking my head
30:56the next thing Daniel knew he'd been stabbed in the back so forcefully
31:00that the knife's handle had snapped
31:04anyone of any Caucasian on the street were bashed
31:07for no other reason than the fact that they were Caucasian
31:10violently bashed
31:11some with weapons including baseball bats
31:19driven by hatred the Middle Eastern mob was on the move for the second straight night
31:26and they were true to their word
31:29at least 30 carloads of men managed to make it into the Shire
31:33the men adopted the tactics of smashing and then running
31:43I was walking back from the 7-eleven just going to get a can of drink
31:46I heard some yelling and screaming across the road
31:49looked across
31:51next thing I know some guy had run across from me
31:53I heard running and like a screaming
31:56I turned up that's the first guy that throws the beer bottle at me
31:59I'm back into this arcove here
32:03and next thing I know there's 20-30 guys hitting me
32:07hit hit hit just getting hit in the head
32:11next thing I can remember there was a steel bar coming up and hitting me
32:14and I don't know what happened from then
32:21police found knuckle dusters
32:23iron bars
32:25baseball bats
32:27other clubs
32:29knives
32:31guns
32:32shootings into buildings and shop windows
32:35really violent revenge attacks occurring in multiple suburbs
32:39and sometimes at multiple places at once
32:42and inexplicably
32:43it wasn't just Caucasians who were the targets
32:45Lebanese man 6-7 car get up in the street
32:49in my shop and tried to hit me
32:51and said I'm going to kill you
32:53and hit my shop
32:55I thinking I'm going to get killed
32:57I didn't think I can get away with it
33:01it was kind of a scary time where
33:03it didn't matter where you lived
33:05you didn't want to go out at night
33:10I'm not sure that any police force in the world that I'm aware of
33:13had before experienced these
33:16marauding and rampaging mobile gangs
33:19one of the boys I was there
33:21and he said Doc come on I want to show you something
33:24took me on the side
33:26opened the boot of his car
33:28and he had a blanket
33:29removed the blanket
33:31and he had a couple of machine gun
33:34and all that sort of things
33:35and I said listen close it down
33:37we don't want to have any of this
33:41the police are on our side
33:43we're going to respect the law
33:45because if it is
33:46one has got the bigger guns
33:48one has got is more violent
33:50that's not the way you build a society
33:56the revenge attacks
33:58the revenge attacks
33:59were so confronting
34:00but I think what people don't know is
34:02they could have been a whole lot worse
34:04I think the police did a great job of keeping that quiet
34:07and it's taken a long time for those facts to come out
34:10police were receiving very high level intelligence
34:14from our own intelligence sources
34:17for instance information the following weekend
34:20there is going to be a drive-by shooting
34:22using machine guns at the
34:24into the beer garden of the North Cronulla Hotel
34:28we conducted a covert undercover police operation
34:32that was run
34:34that took a hand grenade off the black market
34:37that was attempted to be thrown into that beer garden
34:39from a moving car going past
34:42and we literally took off the streets
34:44truckloads of weapons
34:46five people have been arrested for the possession of Molotov cocktails
34:50and we believe that they were intending to use those weapons
34:54they found machine guns
34:56the police found Molotov cocktails
34:59grenades
35:01another one was Westfield's at Miranda
35:03in the Thursday night before Christmas
35:05we had very good intelligence that there was going to be an attack done on that
35:09and we saw recently what happened with one offender at Bondi
35:13well there was going to be 50 people pull up out the front
35:16and rampage through the shopping centre with knives, guns, baseball bats
35:22can you imagine had any of those attacks gone ahead
35:28in our country
35:29this is Australia
35:34for a good chunk of Australians it made them realise that the kind of anti-Muslim sentiment that they'd started
35:41to get used to in the media could actually have real serious impacts
36:02it's my view that the Cronulla rights were a turning point in Australia's history
36:06a report of 20 to 30 vehicles headed towards Cronulla
36:10police eventually got on top of it as they always do but not without special new powers
36:17that had to be introduced and given to the police
36:21unprecedented powers where they were able to stop vehicles, check licences
36:25at least 30 carloads of men managed to make it into the Shire
36:29several were stopped and searched by police
36:31you could not get into that suburb unless you went through a police block
36:36submit yourself to a search and your vehicle to a search
36:42and it's very draconian level powers that have never been seen before
36:47a special strike force made up of 500 officers is to be set up
36:51it will be on standby night and day to deal with the specific problem of racial unrest
37:02I covered courts and the police did an extraordinary job in their investigations in the days afterwards
37:09so I saw a lot of them from both sides
37:13police allege he was part of the mob which stormed a train bashing two Middle Eastern men
37:18and you hear their back story and
37:21never been involved in anything like this before
37:25ashamed of their involvement in it
37:27would swear to the magistrate that this is not the person they were
37:31and I always just felt like going
37:32look what you've done to your mother
37:34did you have a chance to speak to your son?
37:36sorry no comment
37:38Hattie Kawaja had a handful of supporters in court
37:41they didn't take kindly to the cameras waiting outside
37:44what the f*** are you?
37:47what the f*** are you hearing Brian?
37:49on the night of the December 11 riots
37:5124 year old Kawaja climbed Brighton La Sands RSL
37:55and stole an Australian flag
37:57then in front of 150 Lebanese men
38:00set in the light
38:03the magistrate said it was incomprehensible
38:06that Kawaja burnt the Australian flag
38:08three days after being sentenced to 500 hours community service
38:12for embezzlement
38:13he described the crime as extreme vandalism
38:16sentencing him to three months jail
38:21I think a lot of people felt uneasy about the fact that the Australian flag was so present
38:26O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:30what was pronounced to me was how the Australian flag was used as a kind of call to arms for
38:35all those people who were really angry
38:36O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:41O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:45O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:49O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:50O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C.
38:59O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O.C. O
39:06of the country that I was born in.
39:08You know, I once wore the flag to celebrate Australia Day as my hijab.
39:14It was something that, you know, if nothing else represented my country,
39:19suddenly became a tool of fear for me.
39:28And so there was, I think, a very quick reckoning
39:32that something horrible had happened here,
39:35that this was a questioning of who we were
39:37and looking to those institutions, police, courts, to stabilise this.
39:48Post-Cronulla, we had politicians, we had media even,
39:51and we had community leaders stepping in.
39:54It's about finding out where we're heading
39:57and how we can work together.
39:58We could see a 60-minute grapple with an audience on the issues.
40:04There's never been anything quite like it, not in my lifetime anyway.
40:07Nothing is ugly or is shameful.
40:10Nothing is un-Australian.
40:11This could have been any beach between Newcastle and Wollongong
40:15because this obnoxious criminal thuggish behaviour
40:19has been underway for ten years.
40:21So what you're trying to tell me right now, that if we were to grab our community,
40:26all these so-called thugs, how you put it, and keep denouncing these kids
40:30and lock them up, you think that's going to be a solution?
40:33Listen there.
40:34Are you serious?
40:36I'm an Australian-born Lebanese Muslim, and to be told by another white Anglo-Saxon
40:42to go back to my country, well, this is my country.
40:45Where do you want me to go?
40:49Lady in front, what do you have to say?
40:50We can walk to school for our five days a week.
40:53We can get stopped three out of the five days, get harassed for being Australian, walking to school.
40:58I'm Lebanese, and I'm Muslim, and I also get harassed, so it's not just the Aussies.
41:02I really, really get angry when Aussies think that they're targeted just because they're white.
41:06That is not true.
41:08We keep coming back to who belongs and who doesn't.
41:12And that conversation has never gone away, and we don't come up with answers.
41:18Aren't we sick of coming back to this conversation over and over again?
41:22We still ask ourselves, are we racist?
41:24We still ask ourselves, who are we as a nation?
41:29I don't think we've moved beyond that yet.
41:37It was not racially motivated at all.
41:39It was more to do with the behaviour that was being exhibited that was then racially badged
41:45by local people who had had detentions building up and they'd had enough of it.
41:56We lived through the coronal days, we lived through before coronal days, and now we are talking 20 years afterwards.
42:06Without any doubt, it was racially based.
42:11You're not welcome. This is our land. Get the hell out.
42:15And it was targeted against people of Middle Eastern appearances and targeted against people that they look anything different.
42:26Except white, blonde, blue eyes.
42:30Leave the fuck out!
42:36Is there still a live debate in Australia around racism?
42:40Yes, there always will be.
42:44I absolutely think the Cronulla riots could happen again in Australia.
43:09Cronulla changed us.
43:11It was something we hadn't seen or had to deal with before.
43:17But I think we want to think of ourselves as that friendly nation where all are welcome.
43:22And we want to avoid a small ugliness that exists.
43:27And with Cronulla riots, we were forced to address it.
43:33Absolutely, the Cronulla riots changed Australia.
43:37They gave us a moment in time within a place with people who acted in ways that have forced us
43:44to question and reflect and to ask, do we want to go back there?
43:52You know what, as horrible as that day was and everything it represented, something good actually came from it, believe
44:01it or not.
44:01And that is how different groups right around Sydney came together and said no.
44:08In a show of goodwill, members of the Islamic community mixed with surfers this afternoon at Maroubra and Cronulla.
44:15There was such a concerted effort and it came from the right place.
44:20It was heartfelt to actually stamp our foot and go, this is not who we are.
44:26We can always overcome our differences.
44:29Their religions are different, but their beliefs are the same.
44:32All they want is peace.
44:37Violence is not to be tolerated.
44:39It's never excusable, no matter who does it.
44:42One of the other things that came out of Cronulla is just this idea that, you know, the beach doesn't
44:48belong to the locals and everyone should be able to enjoy it.
44:52And some very enterprising person came up with the idea of the burkini to allow women of the Islamic faith
44:59to be able to enjoy the beach in the same way that the rest of us can.
45:06We recruited boys and girls from both areas.
45:10We trained together for a couple of months.
45:13We walked the Kokoda track together.
45:16And it was the first time a Hijabi Muslim girl would walk the Kokoda track.
45:23And I went along with them on one of those treks to the Black Cat track in Papua New Guinea.
45:29You alright? Yeah?
45:29Yeah, I just came away from that trek with a really good feeling about the young people of Australia.
45:40Cronulla writes, it's 20 years this year and we haven't seen anything like it since.
45:47But we shouldn't relax.
45:52Given recent anti-Semitic attacks and even just some of the scenes we've seen from neo-Nazis in Melbourne of
46:00late, the tension is still there.
46:03The neo-Nazis arrived in support of an anti-trans rights speaker.
46:08That group met with a counter-protest.
46:12I remember watching the January 6th riots in the US, astounded by what I was seeing.
46:22Going way back to what we saw at Cronulla to January 6th.
46:27We are taking our hearts!
46:29So unfortunately, that could happen again.
46:32U.S. riot! U.S. riot!
46:35And in a way that's enabled today by our social media is far more connected.
46:40We had text messages around the Cronulla time.
46:42But as you saw with January 6th, the amplification of Trump's message and how that gets shared.
46:50I think the conditions are there. This could absolutely happen.
46:54Listen to the people!
46:56If Cronulla happened today, I think we would be debating whether it was a riot or not.
47:01We're in the fucking capital!
47:03I don't think it would be any kind of constructive conversation.
47:09I think it would be each person's truth as they see it.
47:13And it's really weird to look back at something like Cronulla as a time that I now think,
47:20or wasn't it nice that we actually then came together afterwards?
47:25I kind of long for that.
47:28I personally don't think that there would be that level of racial violence in this country again,
47:32or I certainly hope not.
47:34I hope the lessons have been learnt.
47:37I came to Australia in 1984.
47:40And when I arrived in Australia, I fell in love with Australia and its people.
47:46In 2005, I felt it is a moment of Australia's national building.
47:57Australia has matured.
48:01Every nation, as we go by, we go through these difficulties, but we learn from them.
48:10Cronulla gave us a moment and it showed us an alternative future, and we've rejected that.
48:16And all that makes you really proud to be Australian.
48:29I am not нос of牛.
48:31Corrado.
48:32So, Venus.
48:33For us, we have got lights, but where are we going by, of course?
48:34To a moment, we'll see you next time.
48:34Bye!
48:34Bye.
48:36Bye!
48:36Bye.
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