All language subtitles for events.that.changed.australia.s01e01.1080p.hdtv.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Get the fuck out of Australia!

Get back!

Cronulla riots.
December 11th, 2005.

Changed us.

We want to think of ourselves
as that friendly nation

where all are welcome,
and we want to avoid

a small ugliness that exists.

CROWD: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

And with Cronulla riots,

we were forced to address it.

(YELLING)

Cronulla riots were a turning point
in Australia's history.

(OVERLAPPING YELLING)

People think the Cronulla riots
started on the day of

the Cronulla riots.

That's completely wrong.

Cronulla was a weaponising
of the flag

to represent certain politics,
that was anti-immigration.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs!

A lot of the things
that we saw that day,

we never showed on television.

We considered them too scary.

And it's only now, 20 years on,
that we're seeing

some of that vision.

It's on, it's on!

But I don't know if any
of us thought it would be

as ugly as it was.

Who the fuck
you hitting, bro?

Machine guns.
Molotov cocktails. Grenades.

Gangs of men of
Middle Eastern origin,

baying for revenge.

There was a very quick reckoning
that forced us

to question, is that
what we mean by being

a multicultural society?

Is this who we want to be?

We're back here for revenge!
(INDISTINCT OVERLAPPING SHOUTS)

We woke up to
a different country.

Australia changed overnight.

Never fucking come back!

There are very few
things that still remain

quintessentially Australian,
but the beach being a free place

for everybody, it's just a very,
very Australian idea.

Cronulla is a beachside
suburb that would be

just over 20km from the CBD
of Sydney.

It's home to
the Cronulla Sharks.

It's where former
Prime Minister Scott Morrison

had his electorate.

We sometimes joke, calling it
'God's Country'

or 'the Insular Peninsula',
because it tends to be

the sort of place that if you're born
there, you never want to leave.

The demographics
of Cronulla

were very Anglo-Saxon, very white,
very beach/surfie orientated.

A lot of people worked
and wanted to live

and their lifestyle was the beach.

So young guys, it was
the blonde haired, blue eyed.

We love Australia.
I'm proud of it.

And we're proud to be here.

I was at the surf club
on that day and doing my patrols

and observing everything that
was going on at the beach.

2005, what was I listening to?

There would have been
some Powderfinger.

# Baby I've got you on my mind... #

Probably some Spiderbait.

A little bit of 'Black Betty.'

# Woah, Black Betty,
bam-ba-lam... #

Black Betty was a very masculine,
rambunctious

and had that real rock and roll
swagger.

I was definitely listening to
a lot of that pop, hip hop, R&B.

Black Eyed Peas.

# Let's get it started in here... #

It was actually a great time!

Cronulla is the only
beachside suburb

in Sydney that has the train
line that goes to it.

So over the years, there's been
groups like Westies, Bankies,

Sharpies, a large number of
gang-type groups that have

come to Cronulla and got into
conflict with the local surfies.

And it's about territory
and it's about behaviour

down there and expectations.

Um, because the surfies
can be quite territorial

in their nature.

In 2005,

I was the Regional Commander
for area of Cronulla

and the CBD,
parts of Sydney and so forth.

And no matter who you are,
if you turn up here and want to

pull that sort of activity on,
you will be arrested.

So in the lead up to
the actual Cronulla riots,

there was quite a build-up
of tension and community issues

and local angst where there was,
um, a Lebanese Muslim

young youth coming from the western
suburbs to the beach area.

You had some people who were
coming from the western suburbs

of Sydney, wanting
to come and enjoy Cronulla Beach,

as they should.

And there was a bit of
a clash of cultures.

Well, basically, if you
come to the beach

and you yell at people,
from a distance...

Abuse, then how can you demand
respect? That's just rude.

They come up to you and ask you,
for example, if you root,

and they all laugh.

Those sorts of quite
offensive comments

which were really taken badly
by young girls, but also their

fathers, their boyfriends,
husbands and so forth.

They come down here and they
start with their mouth

and they just bullshit
to everybody.

They harass our women.
That's their religion.

In the early 2000s,
it was the the young Muslims

that were involved in
the gang-style behaviour,

strutting through the malls
in gangs,

fights with young, uh,
local people,

standing over young local people
for their money.

In 2005, I was elected to be
the president of

the Lakemba Sports Club,
Australian of the Muslim faith.

We were under pressure.

We felt that all the bad things
that happened by individual,

it will be put under the microscope
and portray that person

is typical of all of us.

Harassment, the stealing,
the theft,

was just all part and parcel
of every summer.

I've been rolled,
I've been jumped.

I've been walking home
from Northies,

just walking through the park,

I've had three dudes
sneak up on me.

I don't believe there was
any issue on the beaches

of Cronulla about Lebanese gang
or anti-social behaviour.

I believe it was a beat up.

People think the Cronulla riots
started on the day

of the Cronulla riots.

That's completely wrong.

They started well before then.

It was something that was
simmering away since 2001.

We were having conversations
around terror, around migration.

I was experiencing that feeling,
the sense

that I was an outsider,
that our communities were outsiders

and that people weren't
comfortable with us.

We were
a multicultural nation.

We were becoming
more multicultural.

But there are a lot of tensions,
particularly around Australians

from Arab backgrounds.

There was this sense
that the combination of their

ethnicity and their religion meant
that they were going

to come to Australia,
be in little huddles of people

and not become Australian.

And then we had a terrible
series of gang rapes in Sydney,

perpetrated by people
who happened to be Muslim

and were saying disgusting things
about Aussie girls

while they were carrying out those
attacks.

An 18-year-old girl gets off
the suburban train

with some Lebanese Australian men,

when she has been sexually assaulted
by 14 men and raped 25 times.

The victims were all
Caucasian women

aged between 13 and 18.

Those convicted,
all Lebanese Muslim youths.

I was, quote, "an Aussie pig,"
and these people

were making out that I was some
sort of a lesser being.

So I think a lot of people
would be hearing that

and feeling a degree of fear.

And in Cronulla, you don't have
the same kind of mix

as you've got in other parts
of Sydney,

where everyone's living alongside
each other,

from all different walks of life,
all different faiths,

all different cultural groups.

You get intimidated by
them and you're in your own area

and you feel like
you can't be safe.

Hassan Moghrabi, the Lakemba
resident claims locals have

been taunting him, saying
he's not welcome in Cronulla.

I'm just here to have fun,
have a swim

and go home, and that's it.
I don't want no trouble.

All of these tensions were there,
and it was really

interesting to see what might
actually make those kinds of

underlying tensions explode.

And all of a sudden, boom.

A major police hunt is
underway for a cowardly group

of up to 20 men who attacked two
surf lifesavers at Cronulla.

Lifesavers had just finished
an eight hour patrol at

North Cronulla when they were
abused by several men,

described as of Middle Eastern
appearance.

The lifesavers and lifeguards
were there, and a couple of

Middle Eastern guys who'd been
kicking a ball around,

they came over and a couple
of words got said,

and I think it became a little
bit of the male bravado,

then became, you know,
push me/shove you almost.

It then became very
much in your face.

The lifesavers were
bashed around the head,

were kicked and punched.

The media then turned that
into an almost like,

circus-like event, where it was

the sons of Anzacs have been
beaten by the Muslim Lebanese.

Almost from the 9/11
attack,

'the terrorists have
arrived in Sydney.'

For anyone to attack our
Aussie icons, our lifesavers,

who put their own lives at risk,
is just un-Australian.

Something has to be done.

I don't feel safe
to let my children

down on that beach again.

For many, this was
not just a brutal crime,

but an act of sacrilege.

Young volunteer surf lifesavers
bashed while giving up their

weekend to help others.

In all fact, it was
a local assault and should have

been dealt with as such.

But it was a very,
very big build up

in the media at the time.

The feeling that
that erupted locally,

it was massive.

This attack is not Australian
and is absolutely unacceptable

as far as we're concerned.

It's finally everyone's
had enough of it.

People round here are gonna start
doing something about it,

you know, like it's not going to
be a one-sided affair anymore.

I was a court reporter in
the newsroom at that time.

It was the outcome they dreaded.

Outraged by the sentence,
the father of one victim

lashed out in the courtroom.

I was in my early/mid-20s.

You could feel
the tension building.

There were all these text
messages going back and forth.

Something like 270,000.

Locals have received a text message
asking them to reclaim the beach.

(READS)

You look at the lead up.

It almost seems, in a way,
like it was inevitable,

that 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.

Breakfast with
Alan Jones on 2GB 873.

When you've then got
inflammatory voices

in the media, Alan Jones
calling them "Middle Eastern thugs"

and it just,
it kind of gave permission

for this to play out as it did.

You hear people respected
are in command

behind the microphone,
influencing young people,

saying these terrible things.

It was awful.

Issuing a final and blunt warning,

police have told troublemakers
to stay away from Cronulla

tomorrow and avoid a showdown
with frustrated locals.

You will end up with
warfare in the streets,

so let's just cool it a bit.

I think we were prepared
for something bad to happen,

but I don't know
if any of us thought

it would be as ugly as it was.

A mostly sunny
day for the state.

Sydney, fine with sunny periods
and light

to moderate southeast winds.

Down at Cronulla, there was
definitely trouble brewing.

It was a really hard situation to
de-escalate and I think

there'd been a shift that this was
no longer a policing matter,

and the community wanted to
send a very clear signal

on terms that they wished
to express themselves.

So you could definitely
feel that escalation.

I was at the surf club
on that particular day.

The day started off overcast
and very much, I thought,

'Well, this is going to be
a bit of a dud day.'

Sunday, December 11th
looked like any other

Sunday at Cronulla Beach.

People turning up,
going for a swim.

Probably a few more
people there than normal,

but not in the morning.

(CAR HORN)

And then more
and more people coming.

Australian flags wrapped
around people's heads.

My recollections now
are of a lot of young men.

A lot of shirts off, tattoos,
Australian flags.

So it's definitely like
a humanity and a crowd.

People having parties
on balconies.

('LAND DOWN UNDER'
PLAYS IN DISTANCE)

It felt like an Australia Day.
There were eskies, there were flags.

(GENERAL COMMOTION)

There was a soundtrack,
a pub rock Australian soundtrack.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYS)

So on the actual day of
the Cronulla riots,

my role, I was the police commander
in charge of the whole situation.

It was more like a carnival
atmosphere, if you like.

It's about a crowd of about
5000 people had turned up there.

Go, you Aussies.

Up the boys! Aussie!

You gotta be proud.

Initially, it was
primarily a protest.

Um, it was a protest against
the assault on the lifeguards.

It's about those three
lifesavers that got bashed,

and it's not cool.
They're doing their job.

Down here, doing their job,
saving lives.

You know, like they go out,
they risk their neck every week.

It was a protest about
reclaiming the beach

from the...they believed locally
terrorising almost of

their suburb by youth
from the western suburbs.

We're sick and tired of just
being harassed on the beach.

They don't come
with their beach towels.

They don't come down
to have a swim.

They haven't got
their boardies on.

They come down to harass.

And they've been coming down here,
hanging out at the wall,

making it unsafe for people
to walk around here

at night, mate, it's just enough.

We've just had enough.
We love everyone. We're not racist.

We've had e-(BLEEP)-nough.

(CROWD CHANTING)
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Aussie!
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Oi, oi, oi!

Most people who went there
were getting on the cans.

And then before you know it,
one knucklehead

leads to two knuckleheads,
leads to three.

You know, a lot of the things
that we saw that day,

we never showed on television.

We considered them too scary.
Too incendiary.

This is our beach
and we want it back!

Fuck these (MUTED).
We want our fuckin' beach!

We have taken enough shit
from these fuckin' Lebanese!

The decision was made
that we wouldn't inflame

this situation any further.

Let's fuckin' get 'em!
(CHEERS)

And it's only now, 20 years on,
that we're seeing some of

that vision.

If you don't love Australia,
get fucked!

As the sun then came out,

all the young fellows
arriving

were all carrying packs
over their shoulders of beer.

Oh, mate.

And it was just getting
bigger and bigger.

And louder and louder.

As people were getting drunker
and drunker,

and the day was getting hotter
and hotter.

Boys, get down here.
Help us out. It's all on.

So it was growing.

Yeah, I remember
a mass of people,

just people
sort of standing around.

It reminded me of, like
being at a gig, right.

Like at a music festival.

(GENERAL COMMOTION, CHANTS)

There was like an aimlessness.

CROWD: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

It was peculiar.

CROWD: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

People will not tolerate
Muslims in our society.

They do nothing. All they do,
they harass our women.

They come here in groups,
groups of 10, 15.

They harass
and intimidate women.

If they're going to harass us,
then they're not welcome.

They need to show respect.
Yeah.

They don't show us
any respect.

We're sick of the disrespect.

Sickening.

And they try and hit on us.
And we just don't like it.

And one guy asked
for a cigarette

and he didn't even smoke.

That's why we're all
here today. Yew!

Hey, you're a sicko!
Get away!

That's it.

So yeah, we just want them
to leave us alone

and just...
And get the fuck out of...

Go home!

Woo!

Yee-ha!

So by early afternoon,
the crowd had become hostile,

drunk, whipped up, revved up.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs!

And I remember the moment
when the chanting started.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs!

And that felt like
a real turning point.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs!

Everything changed in that
moment, where no-one was safe.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs! Fuck off, Lebs!

I think the words "F off, Lebs"
was really shocking.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs! Fuck off, Lebs!

Hysteria is hyping up
dramatically.

Fuck off, wogs!

Go, Australia!

I think that
it's going to blow.

(WHISTLING, YELLING)

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs! Fuck off, Lebs!

What's really strange
about the Cronulla riots

is it was a one-sided riot.

It was just this huge mob of
mainly young Aussie blokes.

It wasn't like you've got
a gang here and a gang here

and they're fighting in
the streets of Cronulla.

Anyone who didn't look like
them, anyone who didn't

have blonde hair and white,
the crowd was turning on them.

(BOTTLE SMASHES, YELLING)

These are not thugs.

These are just poor, innocent
people who probably

didn't even know it was going to be
happening in Cronulla that day.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

I mean, how frightening
for some of these people.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Start sprayin' 'em!

Who had nothing to do
with what was going on.

But they look different.

So they were chased.

Get back, get back!

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Go fucking home!

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Back out of there, mate.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

I had in a real time
moment

of, oh my god, this is what
racism looks like

when it's right there in front of me
being played out in violence.

Don't ever fuckin' come back!

Although 2005 doesn't seem
that long ago, when you look

back at that time, we really
didn't understand that we did

frame ourselves as a white
Australia and an other.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Stay the fuck out!

Don't fuckin' come back!
Fuckin' dogs!

I see myself as an Aussie,
but I never really saw

that reflected back to me.

But what Cronulla did was really
put that up in lights

and really put it
on the main stage.

Can I ask you fellas
what's going on?

What's going on?
Leb bashin', mate.

At one stage, even in the crowd,
there was a a couple

of young men from Bangladesh
that turned up in their vehicle

and inadvertently end up
among the mob.

They were from Bangladesh,
not even from the Middle East.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

The crowd sensed that there
was something happening.

There was a train load of people
supposedly coming in

from the western suburbs.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)
(CAR HORN)

So suddenly, you've got
this mad crowd

rushing towards the station.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

When they got to
the station,

they got onto a train
which had just arrived.

And there were two young
Arabic boys on that train...

..who had no real knowledge
of what was even occurring.

There was an extremely
violent attack

by the drunken crowd
on those two young men.

Craig Campbell, who was
sergeant in charge of

the Commuter Crime Unit
at the time,

he pulled out his baton
and he single-handedly,

he took on that entire carriage
full of drunken yobbos.

Get out! Get out!

Now, that's one of
the bravest things

that I've ever seen.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

No doubt he saved the lives
of those two young men

on the train that day.

Really quickly after that,
people left the station.

And they returned
down to the beach.

You know, as a photographer,
I'd photographed a lot of war zones,

but this was a little
bit different.

So out of the corner of my eye,
I noticed a man

running out of a stairwell,

and there's like three or four
people chasing him,

just giving haymaker king hits.

And I realised
I've got to keep clicking.

The victim in this case
ran onto a street

and then sought refuge
on the back of a ute.

And so he was covering his head
and blocking the blows,

more and more people piling in.

The fists turned into beer bottles
and they're slamming

these beer bottles on his head.

But at that moment,
a police officer came in

with capsicum spray.

(COMMOTION)

But I quickly realised,
this ain't over.

And this could actually
get a whole lot worse.

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

Leave him alone!

You need a back up, mate!

(OVERLAPPING AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

People started
throwing stubbies.

And I think one of the first ones
that came in

managed to hit me on the head.

'Cause I was covered in blood.

Bring on the fucking Lebs!

I think that's where,
probably where the policing

had then stepped up.

Stop it!

And started organising
crowd control.

Fuck off.

It eventually quietened down.

But any thought that
that was the end,

we were so wrong.

There was so much more to come
and it was going to get

really ugly again.

I lived with my community
and I know they're not gonna

take it lying down.

And that's the message that I've
told the people in authority.

This is not going to go
without a reaction.

I think one of the untold
stories of Cronulla riots

is the revenge attacks.
Retaliation.

There was so much anger
in the community.

The people in the outer
suburbs of Sydney

who have now watched the TV news
and seen people

who look like them being chased
and bashed.

They then decided
to get their revenge.

So they jumped in their
cars and they headed

towards Cronulla.

The public are probably not aware
to this day of the actual

level of threat and the level
of violence that was occurring.

Gangs of men of
Middle Eastern origin

baying for revenge.

This 45 year old man,
randomly selected

by a gang as he put his
garbage bins on the footpath.

He survived the beating but has
broken ribs and head injuries.

Residents throughout
Sydney's south

are literally living in fear.

No-one knows where or who these
roaming gangs will strike next.

The most serious incident
came outside a golf club

when a car pulled up alongside
Daniel Gray and his friends.

The car doors flew open
and, um, you know,

four guys started running.

One of the guys called out,
"Get those Aussie sluts!"

At that stage, I had one
on either side of

my head, kicking my head.

The next thing Daniel knew,
he'd been stabbed in the back

so forcefully that the knife's
handle had snapped.

Anyone of any...
Caucasian on the street

were bashed for no other reason

than the fact that they were
Caucasian.

Violently bashed,
some with weapons,

including baseball bats.

Driven by hatred, the Middle
Eastern mob was on the move

for the second straight night.

We'll bash you...

And they were true
to their word.

At least 30 carloads
of men managed to make it

into the Shire.

The men adopted the tactics
of smashing and then running.

I was walking back from
the 7-Eleven,

just going to get a can
of drink.

I heard some yelling
and screaming across

the road. I looked across.

Next thing I know, some guy
had run across from me.

I heard running and like
a screaming. I turned up.

That's the first guy that
throws the beer bottle at me.

I backed into this alcove here
and next thing I know,

there's 20/30 guys
hitting me.

Hit, hit hit.
Just get hit in the head.

Next thing I can remember was a
steel bar coming up and hitting me,

and I don't know
what happened from then.

Police found knuckledusters.

Iron bars, baseball bats,
other clubs, knives,

guns, shootings into buildings
and shop windows.

Really violent revenge attacks
occurring in multiple suburbs

and sometimes at
multiple places at once.

And inexplicably,
it wasn't just Caucasians

who were the targets.

Lebanese men, six/seven car
get up in the street

in my shop and try to hit me
and said,

"I'm going to kill you"
and hit my shop.

I'm thinking
I'm gonna get killed.

I didn't think I can
get away with it.

It was kind of a scary time
where it didn't matter

where you lived, you didn't
want to go out at night.

I'm not sure that any police force
in the world

that I'm aware of had before
experienced these marauding

and rampaging mobile gangs.

One of the boys, I was there
and he said, "Doc, come on,

I want to show you something."

Took me on the side,
open the boot of his car

and he had a blanket,
removed the blanket,

and he had a couple of machine gun
and all that sort of things.

And I said,
"Listen, close it down.

We don't want to have any
of this."

"The police are on our side.

"We're gonna respect the law.

Because if it is,
All it's got, the bigger guns."

It's more violent.

That's not the way
you build a society.

The revenge attacks
were so confronting.

But I think what people
don't know is

they could have been
a whole lot worse.

I think the police did a great
job at keeping that quiet,

and it's taken a long time
for those facts to come out.

Police were receiving very
high level intelligence

from our own
intelligence sources.

For instance, information
the following weekend,

there is going to be a drive-by
shooting using machine guns

into the beer garden
of the North Cronulla Hotel.

We conducted a covert
undercover police operation

that was run, that took a hand
grenade off the black market

that was attempted to be thrown
into that beer garden

from a moving car going past,

and we literally took off
the streets

truckloads of weapons.

Five people have been arrested
for the possession

of Molotov cocktails.

And we believe that they were
intending to use those weapons.

They found machine guns.

The police found Molotov cocktails.
Grenades.

Another one was Westfields
at Miranda in the Thursday night

before Christmas.

We had very good intelligence
that there was going to be

an attack done on that.

And we saw recently
what happened with

one offender at Bondi.

Well, there was going to
be 50 people pull up

out the front and rampage
through the shopping centre

with knives, guns, baseball bats.

Can you imagine

had any of those attacks
gone ahead in our country?

This is Australia.

For a good chunk of Australians,
that made them

realise that the kind of
anti-Muslim sentiment

that they'd started to get used to
in the media could actually

have real serious impacts.

It's my view that
the Cronulla riots

were a turning point
in Australia's history.

The report is 20 to 30
vehicles are headed

towards Cronulla.

Police eventually got on
top of it, as they always do,

but not without special new
powers that had to be introduced

and given to the police.

Unprecedented powers
where they were able to stop

vehicles, check licenses.

At least 30 car loads
of men managed to

make it into the Shire.

Several were stopped
and searched by police.

I know I've got nothing!

You could not get into
that suburb unless you went

through a police block.

Submit yourself to a search
and your vehicle to a search.

And it's very draconian
level powers

that have never been seen before.

A special strike force, made up
of 500 officers is to be set up.

It will be on standby
night and day

to deal with the specific problem
of racial unrest.

Go to the back of
the truck over here.

I've done nothin' wrong!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

I covered courts,
and the police

did an extraordinary job
in their investigations

in the days afterwards.

So I saw a lot of them
from both sides.

Police allege he was part of
the mob which stormed a train

bashing two Middle Eastern men.

And you hear their backstory
and never been involved

in anything like this before.

Ashamed of their involvement
in it,

would swear to the magistrate that
this is not the person they were.

And I always just felt like
going,

"Look what you've done
to your mother."

Did you have a chance
to speak to your son?

Oh, sorry. No comment.

Hadi Khawaja had a handful
of supporters in court.

They didn't take kindly to
the cameras waiting outside.

(BLEEP)!

Who the (BLEEP) you hitting,
bro!

On the night of the December
11th riots, 24-year-old Khawaja

climbed Brighton-Le-Sands RSL
and stole an Australian flag.

Then, in front of 150
Lebanese men, set it alight.

The magistrate said it was
incomprehensible that Khawaja

burnt the Australian flag
three days after being sentenced

to 500 hours community service
for embezzlement.

He described the crime
as extreme vandalism,

sentencing him to
three months jail.

I think a lot of people
felt uneasy about the fact

that the Australian flag
was so present.

CROWD: Aussie! Aussie!

What was pronounced to me
was how the Australian flag

was used as a kind of call
to arms for all those people

who were really angry.

CROWD: Fuck off, Lebs!
Fuck off, Lebs! Fuck off, Lebs!

For a time,

I feel the flag represented
a racist white Australia.

I think there was such ugly
connotations that went with

anyone who carried a flag.

CROWD: Fuck the Lebs! Fuck the Lebs!
Fuck the Lebs!

For me, the flag that was
representative of the country

that I was born in,

you know, I once wore
the flag to celebrate

Australia Day as my hijab.

It was something that,
you know, if nothing else,

represented my country.

Suddenly became a tool
of fear for me.

CROWD: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

And so there was,
I think, a very quick

reckoning that something
horrible had happened here.

That this was a questioning
of who we were and looking to

those institutions, police, courts,
to stabilise this.

Post-Cronulla, we had
politicians, we had media even,

and we had community
leaders stepping in.

It's about finding out,
uh, where we're heading

and how we can work together.

We could see a 60 Minutes
grapple with

an audience on the issues.

There's never been
anything quite like it.

Not in my lifetime, anyway.

Nothing as ugly
or as shameful.

Nothing as un-Australian.

This could have
been any beach between

Newcastle and Wollongong.

Because this obnoxious, criminal,
thuggish behaviour

has been underway for 10 years.

So what you're trying
to tell me right now,

that if we were to grab our
community, all these so-called

thugs, how you put it,
and keep denouncing these kids

and lock them up, you think
that's going to be a solution?

Listen...
Are you serious?

I'm an Australian-born
Lebanese Muslim.

And to be told by
another white Anglo Saxon

to go back to my country,

well, this is my country.

Where do you want me to go?

Lady in front.
What have you got to say?

We can walk to school
five days a week.

We can get stopped
three out of the five days.

Get harassed for being
Australian,

walking to school.
I'm Lebanese.

And I'm Muslim, and I also
get harassed.

So it's not just the Aussies.

I really, really get angry
when Aussies think

that they're targeted just because
they're white. That is not true.

We keep coming back to
who belongs and who doesn't.

And that conversation
has never gone away

and we don't come up with answers.

Aren't we sick of coming
back to this conversation

over and over again?

We still ask ourselves,
are we racist?

We still ask ourselves,
who are we as a nation?

I don't think we've moved
beyond that yet.

(AGGRESSIVE YELLING)

It was not racially
motivated at all.

It was more to do with
the behaviour

that was being exhibited.

That was then racially badged
by local people

who had tensions building up,
and they'd had enough of it.

Fuck the wogs, fuck the wogs!

We lived through the Cronulla
days, we lived through

before Cronulla days, and now
we are talking 20 years afterwards.

Without any doubt,
it was racially based.

You're not welcome.

This is our land.

Get the hell out.

And it was targeted against
people of Middle Eastern

appearances and targeted against
people that they look

anything different
except white, blonde, blue eyes.

Get the fuck out!

Is there still a live debate
in Australia around racism?

Yes, there always will be.

I absolutely think
the Cronulla riots

could happen again in Australia.

Cronulla changed us.

It was something we hadn't
seen or had to deal with

before, but I think we want
to think of ourselves

as that friendly nation where all
are welcome and we want to avoid

a small ugliness that exists.

And with Cronulla riots,
we were forced to address it.

Absolutely, the Cronulla riots
changed Australia.

They gave us a moment
in time within a place,

with people who acted in ways
that have forced us to question

and reflect and to ask,
do we want to go back there?

You know what? As horrible as
as that day was and everything

it represented, something good
actually came from it.

Believe it or not.
And that is how different groups

right around Sydney
came together and said no.

In a show of goodwill,

members of the Islamic community
mixed with surfers this afternoon

at Maroubra and Cronulla.

There was such
a concerted effort

and it came from the right place,

it was heartfelt, to actually stamp
our foot and go,

this is not who we are.

We can always overcome
our differences.

Their religions are different,
but their beliefs are the same.

All they want is peace.

Violence is not
to be tolerated.

It's never excusable,
no matter who does it.

One of the other things
that came out of Cronulla is

just this idea that, you know,
the beach doesn't belong to

the locals and everyone
should be able to enjoy it.

And some very enterprising person
came up with the idea of

the burkini, to allow women of
the Islamic faith to be able to

enjoy the beach in the same way
that the rest of us can.

We recruited boys
and girls from both areas.

We trained together
for a couple of months.

We walked the Kokoda Track together,
and it was the first time

a hijabi Muslim girl
will walk the Kokoda Track.

And I went along with them on
one of those treks

to the Black Cat Track
in Papua New Guinea.

Yeah, I just came away from
that trek with a really

good feeling about the young
people of Australia.

Cronulla riots, it's
20 years this year,

and we haven't seen anything
like it since.

But we shouldn't relax.

Given recent anti-Semitic attacks
and even just some of

the scenes we've seen from
neo-Nazis in Melbourne of late,

the tension is still there.

The neo-Nazis arrived in support of
an anti trans rights speaker.

That group met with
a counter-protest.

(OVERLAPPING YELLING)

I remember watching
the January 6th riots in the US,

astounded by what I was seeing.

Going way back
to what we saw

at Cronulla, to January 6th...

So unfortunately,
that could happen again.

And in a way, that's enabled
today by our social media,

it's far more connected.

We had text messages
around the Cronulla time,

but as you saw with January 6th,
the amplification of

Trump's message
and how that gets shared.

I think the conditions
are there.

This could absolutely happen.

If Cronulla happened today,

I think we would be debating
whether it was a riot or not.

We're in the fucking capital!

I don't think
it would be any kind of

constructive conversation.

I think it would be each
person's truth as they see it.

And it's really weird to look
back at something like Cronulla

as a time that I now think,

wasn't it nice
that we actually then

came together afterwards?

I kind of long for that.

I personally don't think
that there would be that level

of racial violence in this
country again, or I would

certainly hope not and hope
the lessons have been learnt.

I came to Australia in 1984
and when I arrived in

Australia, I fell in love
with Australia and its people.

In 2005, I felt it is
a moment of Australia's

national building.

Australia has matured.
Every nation, as we go by,

we go through these difficulties
but we learn from them.

Cronulla gave us a moment
and it showed us an alternative

future and we've rejected
that,

and all that makes you really proud
to be Australian.

Captioned by AI-Media
ai-media.tv

MAN:
14 people had died.

And I said,
"That can't be true."

It was true.

And then, the news just
kept getting so much worse.

(SIRENS BLARE)

VOICEOVER:
The monster...

WOMAN:
A fire that was 100 Ks wide.

..that changed Australia.

We needed to know

how the hell
something like this happened.

Black Saturday like you've never
seen before.

If people had been told,
"You have to get out,"

people would have lived.