Criminalising dissent in the Sydney police state

Governments are silencing resistance and dissent, and trading their democratic soul for a seat at the global arms table.

A moment of truth: NSW police enforce silence with pepper spray at the Indo–Pacific arms expo protest (photograph: Eddy Jokovich).

The Indo–Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney’s Darling Harbour this week was presented by government as a display of superior technological prowess, national security and death machinery which, according to Defence Minister Richard Marles, “span the breadth of the beautiful, the menacing and the extremely cool”.

But behind the slick promotional language of “innovation” and “defence capability” – not to mention the absolute weirdness of Marles’ boy-with-toys obsession – there’s something a lot more sinister that’s going on: Australia has a growing addiction to militarism, which is being sanctioned by federal and state governments, and protected by police forces and riot squads.

Sponsored by the NSW Labor Government and Investment NSW, the expo hosted weapons manufacturers from all around the world, including Israeli companies accused of supplying the war machinery that has reduced Gaza to rubble – private firm Elbit Systems and the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It was, literally, an arms trade fair paid for by taxpayers – an obscene event where the tools of death were marketed as an economic opportunity.

While that was going on inside the International Convention Centre, the reality outside was quite different: hundreds of protesters, led by the Palestine Action Group and supported by anti-war organisations, students and trade unionists, gathered to blockade the expo. The goal was to expose Australia’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza, and to confront – peacefully – those companies and governments who are profiting from it, and from other wars around the world.

But they were met with the full brutality of the state – while the speeches and peaceful protests were allowed to run for just over an hour, riot police, their mounted units and assorted officers armed with pepper spray decided that enough was enough, and descended onto the crowd within minutes. What began as a lawful and peaceful demonstration quickly became an exercise in state repression, an issue that is becoming more prevalent in New South Wales.

There was no question that the riot squad provoked this response – despite the both-sides reporting in the mainstream media – and created the panic and confusion, which then provided them with a reason to intervene. Protesters, boxed into “designated” areas under draconian anti-protest laws, were pepper sprayed at close range and shoved against barricades. Even those standing still, holding placards or recording video, were targeted. One woman was hospitalised with a fractured knee after police surged into the crowd and, all up, 13 protesters were arrested. Police officials claimed their officers were “set upon” by demonstrators – a claim that’s contradicted by the many videos showing that it was the riot squad who actually initiated the mayhem. The version of events from the protesters is consistent: they were attacked by the police simply for exercising their right to show their disapproval of the actions of government.

This is a growing pattern in Australia where authorities are only too happy to criminalise dissent, particularly when it challenges military power or the state of Israel. The right to protest is an essential part of Australian democracy, but it’s slowly being eroded – when the state arms itself against its own citizens for protesting against war, it’s no longer a question about effect law enforcement or policing – it’s a question of what kind of nation Australia is becoming.

Perhaps for many people in the crowd, the police-initiated violence wasn’t unexpected. Following on from the police brutality at the SEC Plating company in Belmore earlier this year, where police bashed the former Australian Greens candidate, Hannah Thomas, the crackdown was always going to be an inevitable outcome from a government that now equates opposition to war with disloyalty or, at the least, that’s what the shock jocks from talkback radio keep wanting them to believe.

And these crackdowns are coming from the same Labor Party that once opposed conscription and supported peace movements throughout the twentieth century, which has become a shill for the global arms trade. The clash in Darling Harbour wasn’t just between police and protesters – it was the physical manifestation of a moral collapse and decay of governments of all persuasions, not just the Labor Party.

Australia has one again chosen the wrong side of history. As Palestinian families search for survivors beneath the rubble in Gaza, Australian political leaders celebrate “defence innovation”, the beautiful, the menacing and the extremely cool. The government claims this expo supports “jobs and economic growth,” but for those who were pepper-sprayed, trampled on and detained, the only thing being protected was obscene war profit. This is new face of Australian power and, just like Orwell’s vision of the future where a boot stamping is on a human face forever, it’s one that despises resistance, one that silences dissent, and one that’s trading its democratic soul for a seat at the global arms table.

Profiting from blood: An alliance with the war industry

Behind the violence at Darling Harbour is a greater and more insidious betrayal – not just of protesters or democratic rights, but of the core values that once defined Labor politics throughout Australia. The sponsorship of the exposition by the Labor Government isn’t so much an economic necessity, it’s a political statement and a clear and unapologetic message to the world that the Labor Party – which was once the home of anti-war sentiment, workers’ solidarity and international justice – is just another player and spruiker in the global arms trade.

NSW Premier Chris Minns defended his government’s role in the expo, boasting about the $3.4 billion the defence export industry contributes annually to the local economy. He spoke of jobs, innovation and the “strategic importance” of the sector but went all quiet when he was asked about the presence of Israeli weapons manufacturers, claiming that he’s “not responsible for the invitations”. It was a cowardly evasion that reveals the emptiness of Labor’s ethical compass and, if there’s a dollar to be made, irrespective of where it comes from, Minns will be there wasting taxpayers’ money to try and get it.

However, it’s not just the Labor Party that has become more militaristic and prepared to don the metaphoric military fatigues: it’s a bipartisan venture. In 2017, the then Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, announced that he wanted to significantly increase Australia’s involvement in the global arms trade, aiming for the nation to become a top-ten global defence exporter within a decade.

Malcolm Turnbull at the Indo–Pacific International Maritime Exposition (photograph: Robert Dougherty).

Malcolm Turnbull – the Prime Minister at the time Pyne announced his ambitions for Australia – attended this expo and reportedly holds $13 million in Bisalloy shares, a company that exports armoured steel to Israel which has been used for the genocide in Gaza. Other Liberal Party figures such Dave Sharma and several leaders within Australia’s pro-Israel lobby also have similar interests, and it’s these connections that link Australian politics, corporate wealth and foreign militaries into a single, self-reflective echo chamber of greed that benefits from the slaughter of civilians.

This is the reality that was on full display at Darling Harbour. The rhetoric of innovation and sovereignty – the beautiful, the menacing and the extremely cool – disguised the basic truth that these companies profit from death and destruction. Their products are the missiles that are reducing apartment blocks in Gaza to rubble, the drones that are targeting and killing doctors and paramedics, the tanks that are rolling through razed hospitals. To call this an “industry of the future,” as Premier Minns did, is malevolent and extreme, to say the least.

As much as the proponents would like to try, the arms trade is not an abstract idea. There’s a physical link between this expo and Gaza; if not Gaza, then it’s Sudan. If it’s not Sudan, it’s Ukraine; or Yemen, Ethopia, Afghanistan, or the many other countless wars that have been created through the interference of the United States and other imperialist players in the Western world.

And Australia, under Labor governments, has become an enthusiastic actor in this game. Its leaders speak of “jobs” while turning a blind eye to genocide and, as long as there are profits to be made, they will continue to do so, like so many other governments around the world.

The moral failures of Labor and Australia itself

The images of officers pepper-spraying protesters, of mounted police units driving crowds into fenced enclosures, and of governments ignoring their responsibility for hosting Israeli weapons manufacturers – all of it speaks to a broader sickness at the heart of Australian democracy.

The party that once stood beside dockworkers refusing to load ships bound for apartheid South Africa is now the one cheering on the exports to Israel as Gaza is reduced to rubble. Labor governments now justify their partnerships with defence corporations through the talk-fest of “sovereign capability” and “regional security,” corporate speak that continues to hide the uncomfortable truth: they are selling out the moral authority of the nation for the filthy lucre of war profit and labouring under an illusion of strength.

Labor is now starting to alienate its base – those workers, activists, students and ordinary citizens who still believe in the causes of peace and accountability. Among younger Australians especially, the dissonance between rhetoric and the actions of the party is beginning to wear thin. They see a government that criminalises protest while preaching democracy; claims to uphold human rights while ignoring a genocide; insisting that judging the events in Gaza from a distance is “very difficult”; one that celebrates military innovation when that innovation is being used to destroy societies. That moral contract between Labor and the public – that it stands on the side of decency – is collapsing.

Australia, too, faces a deeper search within its own conscience. Under both state and federal Labor governments, the nation has become an obedient junior partner in the Western military order, defined by AUKUS, defence exports and the normalisation of militarisation.

What kind of nation celebrates its role in the sale of weapons that kills children in Gaza? What kind of government beats its own people and pepper-sprays them for daring to speak out against that reality? Australia has become a country where state violence is used to protect an exported commercial violence, and where dissent is treated as a security threat, rather than a threat that it should be to the war profiteers.

Despite all of this, there always has to be a level of hope, and these protests carried a message of defiance. Those who stood in Darling Harbour – pepper-sprayed and bruised – represent the conscience that the government has tried to suppress. Their presence is proof that not all Australians are willing to be complicit, and this resistance will endure even as Australian governments grow more authoritarian.

Australia might have already gone too far down the path of building an economy on based on war, which includes exporting weapons and silencing its own citizens: this is the legacy of Christopher Pyne; a nation that has become a top-ten global defence exporter and a top-ten exporter of death. Once governments become addicted to sources of easy revenues, irrespective of how much damage they cause – the revenues gained from the gambling industry are excellent example of this – its becomes too difficult to kick the habit.

However, these are still choices that governments and communities can make: a downward spiral into an economy determined by the warlords of the world, or a return to an Australia that upholds justice, supports peace and offers solidarity with the oppressed, no matter where they exist. This is not an abstract choice; it’s a moral test. The world is watching to see what type of Australia emerges in the near future and, so far, it’s not looking good.