Topics: Melbourne Moomba riots, Tony Abbott Liberal Party rally.
E&OE…
TONY JONES
As I said before the break, Scott Ryan a Federal Minister in the Turnbull Government was there with his family on Saturday night in Federation Square but sort of got a sense that things were about to get out of control, he joins us on the line now. Good morning to you Senator.
MINISTER RYAN
Good morning Tony, how are you?
JONES
Good. Well, tell us what did you see on Saturday night that sort of pricked your ears up?
RYAN
I went to dinner at Chocolate Buddha with my wife and son at about 6.30 pm – and we went to the fireworks last year and we were thinking about doing it this year – and at about 7.30 pm groups of about fifty or sixty young men (there was one young women, but mainly young men ) started running to and fro through Federation Square across to St Pauls Cathedral. And, to be honest, you got the vibe that something wasn’t quite. I didn’t see any weapons, but sixty young men running, it was sort of clearing Fed Square. The police came at quarter to eight and there were six police and they capsicum sprayed one gentlemen and then stood around. So, what struck me – because we went home and decided not to go to the fireworks –what struck me when I saw the stories the next morning was: look, those six police did a fantastic job but they were obviously outnumbered later on that evening. Because, not only was there warning on this program last week, and in the media, and social media last week but there was warning two hours before this happened. It was clear something was going wrong and more police were needed, and when you read the stories about police, being outnumbered there was a real failure here. With all due respect to Robert Doyle, I mean he is the Lord Mayor he doesn’t control a police officer. The Premier should be out explaining this because this is a real problem for Melbourne. Imagine if one child or one person had been hit and really injured by one of those chairs being thrown. Yes, we can talk about catching people on CCTV afterwards, but people want the streets to be safe. This is our family day, and not only that you would have had tens of thousands of people trapped between Fed Square and the river because Swanston Street was closed for to trams. This is a massive, massive incident in the heart of our city.
JONES
We don’t want to politicise it, I hear what you’re saying when you say that it is not Robert Doyle’s concern it is Premier Daniel Andrews who should be the one getting on the front foot. But Scott, you’re a Federal Minister, you’re heading back to Canberra today, surely at some point you will be raising this?
RYAN
I heard Robert and you mentioned earlier whether or not people were born here or from overseas and Peter Dutton has been taking permanent visas off people who fail the character test, for a couple of years now. And we read one of the stories in the paper last week about a father of a prominent Melbourne identity…
JONES
Yeah, Shane Martin.
RYAN
Yeah, so this is a policing issue though. Years ago I had a senior officer tell me that police decided that they wanted to keep the peace rather than enforce every strict law. But what happened on Saturday night, we have to actually be frank about this, there was a riot in the city of Melbourne down our main spine on the very night we say to our young families: come to Melbourne. And, the police were not given the resources and the response afterwards of ‘we will look at the closed circuit television’ that is fine to go out afterwards but it doesn’t manage the risk or protect people’s safety. That is what we need to do.
JONES
But Senator, you talk about the whole debate of sending them home, Peter Dutton was up there front and centre with Michael Keenan on Friday talking about: we’re going to crack down on the bikies, we’ll revoke their residency visas and all of the rest of it. But if the ringleaders of these gangs are found to have been born overseas why wouldn’t you send them home? It is not a policing matter, it is a Federal Government matter.
RYAN
No, in the end you do have to – the police’s job is to grab people and arrest them and we put them through the courts and whether they are guilty or not that is when we determine the penalty. But that is a secondary issue here, the real issue we need to understand is what happened on Saturday night and why weren’t the resources there in order to ensure Swanston Street was safe for the thousands of people walking home or the thousands of people out having dinner. That is a real significant issue and we can’t afford to be diverted from the fact that while yes we can look at all those issues that Peter Dutton does – and I don’t think anyone questions Peter’s strength on those issues has been front and centre – but we have to address these sorts of incidences and say that we cannot let them happen. We can’t simply say we are going to try and chase the people down on CCTV afterwards. There was a warning here, there was a warning two hours before and we are lucky no police were injured either and there simply were not enough offices there to maintain the peace in our city. Every long weekend, quite rightly, we read about hundreds of police dedicated to traffic issues and making sure our roads are safe, but we had a warning about last weekend, about Saturday night, and we didn’t direct the resources – so questions need to be asked why.
JONES
So what you’re saying is that police command failed to read the play?
RYAN
No, I think that this is a question that needs to be asked. I am not going to second guess where these decisions are made. But it is clear that there was a failure because there was a riot in the centre of our city and people were running for cover in Swanston Street on the night we say: bring your young families into the city. If we don’t accept that that is a profound failure and ask ourselves ‘what do we do to make sure it never happens again?’ by prioritising keeping the peace and not just chasing people after an offence has been committed, then we are going to see this happen again. And that is not right in the city.
JONES
We’re speaking with Senator Scott Ryan who was in Fed Square just before it happened and read the play and got out of there with his family. Just while we have got you on the line, watching the news last night your old mate Tony Abbott was front and centre up there in Sydney yesterday, speaking to a rally of about 500 Liberals. I just want to play you this audio, if you don’t mind Scott.
(Audio of Tony Abbott at Liberal Party rally)
Okay, so please, he was being mischievous there wasn’t he? Because he knew as soon as he mentioned that name – Turnbull – there would be jeering.
RYAN
I think Tony is also smart enough to know that if he didn’t mention the name Turnbull then he would probably be accused of not mentioning the Prime Minister’s name. So…
(interrupted)
JONES
He mentioned it once and there was jeering, and then he mentioned it another two times.
RYAN
Well, if he hadn’t then people would have said ‘you didn’t defence the Prime Minister’. I think, to be honest, I am not going to pretend that there isn’t the occasional person who still isn’t a bit bruised about last year – but Tony did the right thing yesterday, he asked people to support the re-election of the Turnbull Government and when a couple of people made a bit of a comment he reinforced it. I think if he had done anything else then there would have been criticism of him.
JONES
Hmm – so you don’t think…there was a little smirk there, did you see it?
RYAN
I didn’t see the footage – I’ve only heard the audio.
JONES
Yeah, there was just a little smirk there once the jeering started and I just got the sense that it was just being a bit mischievous on the part of the former prime minister.
RYAN
I don’t think, to be honest it was a difficult year for the former prime minister, for Tony Abbott, he is human. And so, I am not going to judge him by people trying to assign a motive to him. I think what he did yesterday was talk about the Prime Minister and when a couple of people made a noise he reinforced that that was his priority. I think if he had done anything else he would have been criticised for it.
JONES
Always good to talk to you Scott.
RYAN
Thanks Tony, have a nice day.
JONES
Good on you. Senator Scott Ryan joining us there, a Minister in the Turnbull Government.
(ENDS)