Troubles in Australia

Rioting in Australia
To many people around the world Australia is seen as being some kind of paradise where everyone lives together in peace and harmony. Now I admit this sounds a bit fluffy, but the essence of the point is that people believe that Australia doesn't have the problems we have in the UK or America, i.e. poverty, race conflict, riots etc.

So what happened?
Well over the past few days events have unfolded in the suburbs of Australia which have shown that Australia has the same issues and problems we have. On Sunday thousands of angry predominantly white youths gathered in the southern Sydney suburbs of Cronulla, Maroubra and Brighton-Le-Sands against the Lebanese minorities who they claim have terrorised their beaches. Shouting 'we will take Aussie back' and 'we are defending our homelands' they turned on anyone who seemed to be of Muslim or Arabian looks beating up men and women.

The following night in response a line of about 30 cars full of Lebanese youths toured Cronulla and other suburbs smashing up cars, throwing bricks at windows and beating up people.

Police Crackdown
Now the police have cracked down in recent nights by putting men on the streets in the effected areas, stopping people driving into these neighbourhoods unless they are residents and disarming and arresting people they find carrying weapons. For the time being it appears to be working but the real test will come at the weekend.

Expecting Riots
The riots at the weekend were not out of the blue. Rather they were a response to an attack on two life guards on the beach the previous week and were highly planned and organised meetings through the use of text messaging. Reports indicate that these messages are being used again to organise a new congregation this weekend. An example of a text the associated press has been able to uncover is "We'll show them! It's on again (on) Sunday," .

Speaking to friends in Sydney people feel very on edge at the moment as they know that these troubles are far from over. Sydney is an extremely multi-cultural city and there is a very real fear that the violence could spread from the southern suburbs and engulf the entire city. The consequences if this happened would be devastating on the Australian psyche and on the long-term reputation of Australia internationally.

Government Response
The Government response has been mixed. The Federal government of John Howard has refused to even recognise these events as being racist, rather calling them 'un-Australian'. This is very much typical of John Howard who would rather turn a blind eye to the problem than try to tackle the very hard and real causes of the issue which are racism in Australian society and the failure of his Government to integrate and build bridges between the communities.

The State response has been very different under Premier Morris Iemma. He has recalled State Parliament and is introducing tough new powers for police to lock down suburbs, confiscate cars and shut down pubs if they deem it necessary. Furthermore, they will be able to remove the presumption of bail for those charged with rioting or affray. Now many of these powers are needed for the time being but the fact that they have been resorted to and the removal of bail is extremely sad and in many ways shocking. I wonder what the state government will do in the long term to try to solve the problem.

Troubling Times
What is really sad is that since the troubles started two incidents have taken place which could be linked to the troubles, the burning of a church and shooting at a Catholic Carol Service. Although no one was hurt in either incident it is scary that people could burn down a place of worship and even more frightening that they could shoot a gun at children taking part in a school nartivity play. These kind of incidents point towards a complete lack of regard for human life, what is right and wrong and in essence the breakdown of the rule of law in these individuals minds.

The question is what can be done to stop these troubles? By not integrating disadvantaged and often poor minority groups into Australian society the Government has radicalised them. If Australia does not take action to tackle these problems it is possible the troubles could spread to other cities and create similar problems as what happened in France.