Federal Labor MP Bill Shorten has been the victim of pro-Palestine vandalism for a second time after comments he made criticising a controversial demonstration outside his office.
Mr Shorten last week called for protesters to “dial down the agro” after he and several Victorian Labor MPs woke up to a pile of fake bloodied body bags outside their offices with posters that read “free Palestine”.
The vandals appeared to retaliate after they spray-painted the words “dial down the apartheid Bill” on the door of his office in Melbourne about 4am on Thursday.
Speaking to 3AW Radio, the NDIS Minister confirmed “anonymous hoons” had targeted him a second time and claimed they were “the same people that sewed together those fake body bags”.
“Obviously someone took offence at me saying we should promote social cohesion and dial down the agro and the confrontation,” he told host Neil Mitchell.
“People have got a right to have views. I also said in that interview, which has obviously triggered some hoon, that the scenes in the Middle East, in Palestine, in Gaza and Israel are incredibly distressing.
“But there’s a point, there’s a fine line… where you cross over and you’re just sort of demonising and attacking people.”
Protest group No More Bodies in Gaza claimed responsibility for the fake body bags but have yet to confirm whether they were involved in the latest vandalism.
Mr Shorten said at the end of the day the graffiti would be cleaned off and the office would be open for business as per usual.
“If you want to persuade people your point of view, vandalising the office, I don’t know who you think you’re convincing,” he said.
“If you feel strongly on an issue, graffitiing someone’s office at four o’clock in the morning, really? What does that change?”
Mr Shorten added the community did not want to see arguments over the ongoing war in the Middle East “aggravated” in Australia to the point where there was “unnecessary” aggression.
“They don’t want the see arguments in this country to take a level of noise and nastiness,” he said.
Dozens of protesters gathered in Caufield on November 10 following the alleged arson attack on a burger shop owned by a Palestinian man.
A violent brawl broke out between pro-Palestinian protesters and Israeli supporters outside a synagogue, which was forced to evacuate, as police intervened and were forced to use pepper spray.
Melbourne students were recently encouraged to join a “city-wide school walkout” to protest the war on Thursday – a move that has been condemned by both Labor and the Coalition.