Protesters have caused thousands of dollars in damage to federal MP electorate offices in New South Wales and Victoria, according to the Department of Finance, amid community anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The figures, released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, show nearly $90,000 in damage on Jewish Labor MP Josh Burn’s Melbourne office — by far the most expensive.
In June, windows in his office were smashed and slogans including “Zionism is Fascism” were plastered on the building in red paint.
Mr Burns told the ABC the damage “brings us no closer to peace”.
“It only causes distress and division here in Australia,” he said.
Since the Hamas attacks in October last year, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza, there have been a string of attacks on federal MP offices, leading to the prime minister to call for calm.
In a previous speech, Anthony Albanese insisted vandalism of offices does “nothing to advance” the course of democracy.
The figures showed between October 2023 and June 2024, the damage to nine electorate offices had totalled nearly $120,000.
The offices of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten were among those targeted, but on a smaller scale, with a collective damage bill of about $8,000.
The FOI document also showed there was a “third party objection” to providing the damage bill to one unnamed office.
The data only represents the costs associated with damage until June, so doesn’t include the vandalism of Labor MP Peter Khalil’s Melbourne office in recent days.
An inverted red triangle, a symbol associated with terrorist organisation Hamas, was painted on an office door, while Mr Khalil said a hazmat team had to be called to investigate a “horrific” smelling substance.
Darebin for Palestine’s Monica Campo argued in an earlier ABC interview that activists had already tried “all the nice things” including writing letters to MPs and arranging meetings.
“They’ve ignored us.”
Disrupt War’s Natalie Farah said, “If some people are choosing to express their fury by breaking a window, then that’s their choice and their responsibility.”
“But what we really need to be looking at is our government’s reaction to that.”
“It should not have come to the level of people feeling like they need to break a window in order for their governments to listen.”
Victoria Police confirmed on Monday they were investigating the damage.
