Anthony Albanese pours scorn on Peter Dutton’s claim people are too scared of African gangs to go to restaurants

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has fired back at Peter Dutton for “playing to the crowd” over the home affairs minister’s comments that Victorians were too scared to go out to restaurants at night because of youth gangs.

On Wednesday Dutton said politicians needed to identify Melbourne crime problems as “African gang violence”.

“The reality is people are scared to go out to restaurants of a night time because they’re followed home by these gangs,” he said, without providing any evidence.

Is Melbourne in the grip of African crime gangs? The facts behind the lurid headlines Read more

On Thursday Albanese accused the minister of dog-whistling.

“I think Peter Dutton has a serious office as the minister for home affairs,” he said. Albanese added he had seen no evidence of “reluctance” from the public to venture outside their homes.

“He needs to treat that great honour with the dignity and with respect and with the gravitas that it deserves. And playing to the crowd on Sydney radio, about Melbourne, doesn’t make much sense.

“It doesn’t actually do anything to address the real issues of crime that needs to be addressed, but we also need to put these things in perspective.

“What we have seen on the latest figures is actually a drop for the first time in a 12-month figure of crime, here in Victoria, we have also seen year-on-year a continuous decline in youth crime here in Victoria. And people like Peter Dutton need to stop playing politics with what are serious issues and require serious responses.”

Stories about alleged crime gangs involving African youth, particularly from the Sudanese community, have been dominating Victoria’s media, led by the Herald Sun.

Senior Victorian police, while acknowledging the state has a youth crime problem, have stayed away from labelling offenders as part of a “gang”, stating they lack the organised structure associated with such groups.

Play Video 1:24 Victoria police addresses alleged African youth gang crime – video

But that didn’t stopped the headlines. Then on New Year’s Day the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, launched the federal government’s attack against the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, criticising the Labor leader for his “failure” to tackle youth crime and gang violence.

On Wednesday Dutton ramped up the rhetoric while speaking to Sydney radio station 2GB, claiming Andrews’s “politically correct” agenda had let down the state’s police and judiciary.

Victoria’s minister for youth affairs, Jenny Mikakos, stridently criticised Dutton, and the media for reporting his “bullshit” comments “unchallenged”.

Jenny Mikakos MP (@JennyMikakos) With all due respect it’s based on bullshit, you know that, everyone knows that, but you reported it anyway, unchallenged.

Expanding on the theme, Mikakos accused the Liberal party of employing US president Donald Trump’s tactics of “manipulating the media by making outrageous statements guaranteed to get a run and then using their trolls to whip up social media”.

Jenny Mikakos MP (@JennyMikakos) In this media climate where apparently facts don’t matter anymore, the Liberals are employing Trump’s tactics - manipulating the media by making outrageous statements guaranteed to get a run & then using their trolls to whip up social media. It’s all in Hillary’s book! #springst

With a state election due in November, Albanese said it was time for solutions, not politics.

“What matters here is the police’s view of these issues. There is no doubt that there is a disproportionate number of African youth as a percentage of the population have engaged in committing crime,” he said.

“That needs to be addressed. The commonwealth government could make a contribution by actually not cutting the AFP funds, as they have.

Victorian opposition stokes rhetoric on alleged African youth gang crime Read more

“The commonwealth government could make a contribution by not cutting new migrant services as they have, support for people to get into employment and addressing those issues.

“And the police should be given every support that they require and I know that the Andrews government is employing 3,000 additional police here in Victoria, and it deserves better than having a Queensland minister on Sydney radio, talking about Melbourne from a distance, just in order to score a political point.

“The commonwealth government doesn’t have an agenda, all they have is politics and that is why the Turnbull government is flailing around looking for an issue. Peter Dutton needs to be a part of solutions, not just yelling about issues from a far distance.”