Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily OS. It's Friday, the twelfth of December. I'm Lucy
Speaker 1: Tassel and Tam Kazlauski. This week marks twenty years since
Speaker 1: the Kronola Riots, when hundreds of angry, young white Australian
Speaker 1: men descended on Kronulla train Station and Cronulla Beach in
Speaker 1: Sydney's South, attacking people of Middle Eastern appearance. In today's episode,
Speaker 1: we'll explain the context surrounding these riots, including the role
Speaker 1: of radio broadcaster Alan Jones, what happened on the day itself,
Speaker 1: and talk about how Australia has changed since them.
Speaker 2: Lucy, one of the coolest parts of the way that
Speaker 2: we do the news at TDA, in my humble opinion,
Speaker 2: is taking a look at news events that happened when
Speaker 2: our audience might have been too young to remember them
Speaker 2: and actually acknowledging that even those events in early two
Speaker 2: thousands are probably out of the lifespan, if not. I
Speaker 2: mean I was in two thousand and five. I was eleven,
Speaker 2: so young enough to start reading a newspaper, but mainly
Speaker 2: for the Sudoku, and it's really important to explain this
Speaker 2: context for the younger listeners, So why don't we start there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the best way to set the scene is, in fact,
Speaker 1: not even specifically for younger listeners, but just in general
Speaker 1: if you're not from Sydney, is to talk specifically about
Speaker 1: where Cronulla is, and especially where Cronulla Beach is. So
Speaker 1: Cronulla Beach is the only beach in Sydney that is
Speaker 1: really really close to a train station, So Kronulla train
Speaker 1: Station and Kernulla Beach very close together. It's just a
Speaker 1: short flat walk. If you're coming from Sydney's southern suburbs,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely your most accessible beach, and that is a
Speaker 1: really important detail. There are other, obviously many iconic beaches
Speaker 1: in Sydney, but like if you're coming on public transport,
Speaker 1: you need to transfer unless you're going to Cronulla. Suburbs
Speaker 1: on the train line that lead directly to Cronulla include
Speaker 1: places like Cogra, Hurstville and Rockdale where in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands, I've done a bit of digging into censustata
Speaker 1: From two thousand and one, a big proportion of residents
Speaker 1: in those suburbs spoke a language other than English at
Speaker 1: home and had been born in countries other than Australia.
Speaker 1: That is in opposition to Cronulla about ten stops down
Speaker 1: the train line, where in two thousand and one and
Speaker 1: Cronulla eighty six point five percent of people's only spoke
Speaker 1: English right at home and eighty percent were born either
Speaker 1: in Australia or England. And both of those stats are
Speaker 1: actually higher than the national results in Australia at the
Speaker 1: time two thousand and one. And so all of that
Speaker 1: is to say, you've got these suburbs north of Cronulla,
Speaker 1: You've got Cronulla itself which is very Anglo, very English speaking,
Speaker 1: and has this beach that's very accessible. It kind of
Speaker 1: means that everything was uniquely positioned to become a flashpoint
Speaker 1: in the early two thousands, a bit.
Speaker 2: Of a microcosm of the changing face of Australia in
Speaker 2: the early two thousands as well. So what exactly kicked
Speaker 2: off these riots?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, according to a police report from two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, on Sunday, the fourth of December two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, at North Cronulla Beach, there was a verbal
Speaker 1: confrontation between a group of Cronulla Life Savers and a
Speaker 1: group of young men who were described as being of
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern descent. This confrontation escalated into a physical fight.
Speaker 1: And something I should note here also is that at
Speaker 1: the time these weren't professional life they weren't being paid.
Speaker 2: These lifesavers volunteer life savers.
Speaker 1: Volunteer Life Savers at North Cronulla.
Speaker 2: And so this is one week before the riots eventually
Speaker 2: took Okay, cool, Yeah, So it's.
Speaker 1: A summer Sunday, the fourth of December. One man was
Speaker 1: found guilty of assault and a fray over the fight
Speaker 1: the following year, So then that's Sunday, Monday, the fifth
Speaker 1: of December two thousand and five. Alan Jones, who at
Speaker 1: the time was the most popular breakfast radio presenter in Sydney,
Speaker 1: took calls on his breakfast radio show about the fight.
Speaker 1: So he aired from about five am to about ten
Speaker 1: am every weekday morning in Sydney, and he was the
Speaker 1: most listened to man on Sydney radio at the time.
Speaker 1: According to a later review from Australia's media watchdog AKMA.
Speaker 1: That Monday, Jones agreed with a caller who described the
Speaker 1: fight as a quote horrendous bashing, and then Jones added
Speaker 1: he gave his opinion that it had been perpetrated by again,
Speaker 1: just to be clear his words, quote Middle Eastern grubs.
Speaker 2: Okay, so a fight happens on Cronulla Beach on the Sunday,
Speaker 2: it makes it to Sydney Radio on the Monday. How
Speaker 2: do we get from that Monday Am call line to
Speaker 2: the riots on the Sunday.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So every single weekday, Alan Jones's radio show airs
Speaker 1: in the morning every single day that week he talks
Speaker 1: about Cronulla and it's sort of sparked by this fight.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, he spoke to a caller who said, this
Speaker 1: caller said they were from the Northern Beaches, and this
Speaker 1: caller said that area doesn't have the same problem as
Speaker 1: Cronulla quote because we don't have a rail line.
Speaker 2: Okay. Interesting, and that goes back to that sort of
Speaker 2: geographic context that you gave before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. On Wednesday, Jones read a letter from a
Speaker 1: listener aloud and the letter said, quote, invite all the
Speaker 1: biker gangs to be present at Cronulla railway station when
Speaker 1: these Lebanese thugs arrive. Australians old and new should not
Speaker 1: have to put up with this scum, so very intense words.
Speaker 1: They're quite racist, I would say. And again, this is
Speaker 1: just being broadcast on breakfast radio as people are dropping
Speaker 1: the kids off at school on Sydney's most listened to
Speaker 1: radio station.
Speaker 2: And that was probably then, based on your account, the
Speaker 2: first step in foreshadowing a future event, not necessarily just
Speaker 2: a criticism and a review of the past event.
Speaker 1: So Akima found broadcasting this letter quote was likely to
Speaker 1: encourage violence or brutality, and quote was likely to vilify
Speaker 1: people of Lebanese background and people of Middle Eastern background
Speaker 1: on the basis of ethnicity. So Alan Jones was not
Speaker 1: necessarily expressing his own like those weren't his words, but
Speaker 1: it was his choice to read that letter from a
Speaker 1: listener allowed on the radio and then on Thursday. So
Speaker 1: now we're entering the fourth day of Alan Jones talking
Speaker 1: about this every single day on his radio show. He
Speaker 1: mentioned some text messages that had been sent out.
Speaker 2: Okay, so these are the mass texts and it's important
Speaker 2: to kind of set the scene two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: pre social media Facebook launched properly two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: you know, this was the way that there was mass communication, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly It's kind of hard to imagine, but it
Speaker 1: really was the easiest way to contact as many people
Speaker 1: as possible was to text everyone in your phone and
Speaker 1: say basically passed it on. Estimates suggest as many as
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy thousand people got one of a
Speaker 1: series of texts. One of the texts that we know
Speaker 1: about is one that called on quote every Aussie in
Speaker 1: the area surrounding Cronulla to quote bash Lebanese and Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern migrants, adding quote, let's show them that this is
Speaker 1: our beach and they're never welcome talking about Cronulla. If
Speaker 1: you weren't one of the two hundred and seventy thousand
Speaker 1: people who got the text, you heard about it anyway,
Speaker 1: because Alan Jones read it on air. Okay Akma notes
Speaker 1: that immediately after reading this text, he said, quote, well,
Speaker 1: now that's not the way. I do understand what you're saying,
Speaker 1: but we've just got to back off a bit here.
Speaker 1: But on his program that same day, in response to
Speaker 1: a caller who called in saying, actually I have seen
Speaker 1: people be racist towards Lebanese and Middle Eastern people on
Speaker 1: Cronulla beach.
Speaker 2: Okay, so kind of a contrarian viewed. Okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: So a caller called in to say, actually, I have
Speaker 1: seen racism in action in Kronulla. Alan Jones said, quote,
Speaker 1: we don't have Anglo Saxon kids out there raping women
Speaker 1: in western Sydney. AKMA found this and other comments made
Speaker 1: by Jones that day were likely to vilify people of
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern background on the basis of ethnicity. So comments
Speaker 1: made by him, calls that were aired, AKHMA can make
Speaker 1: these findings not necessarily about him specifically, but about the
Speaker 1: radio station. So saying like, got it, it's at the
Speaker 1: radio station's discretion to broadcast these things. So if you
Speaker 1: broadcast a call two GB can get.
Speaker 2: In trouble and just quickly worth noting. I mean, AKMA
Speaker 2: is not the police, right, So there are media regulation watchdog.
Speaker 2: They can hand out fines, they can kind of ban
Speaker 2: people from appearing in certain contexts, but their powers are
Speaker 2: not the same as law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, this isn't a criminal finding. This is just
Speaker 1: AKMA saying this maybe shouldn't have been broadcast because it
Speaker 1: could have had these effects.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 1: And then just to round out the week, on Friday,
Speaker 1: a person called into Jones's show to suggest Muslim people
Speaker 1: quote wanted to take over Australia. Then we have Saturday,
Speaker 1: Alan Jones. Not on the the eleventh, the Sunday one
Speaker 1: week since the altercation on Kronulla Beach is the day
Speaker 1: of the riots.
Speaker 2: And take me through that day. So we've just arrived
Speaker 2: a week after a fight on the beach that has
Speaker 2: been escalated via radio and text messages. We arrive on
Speaker 2: that day. What does that day look like?
Speaker 1: I think look like is the right way to talk
Speaker 1: about it, because when I think of the Kronola rights,
Speaker 1: I think of the images. I think of the press
Speaker 1: photographers who were there from places like the Australian Associated Press.
Speaker 1: I think of photos of young, shirtless white men at
Speaker 1: the beach with Southern Cross tattoos, maybe temporary tattoos, or
Speaker 1: with anti immigration slogans on signs or even in some
Speaker 1: cases painted on their bodies. I also think of the
Speaker 1: images of crowds of white men running through the streets
Speaker 1: of Cronulla, clashing with police, physically attacking men of any
Speaker 1: other ethnicity. Reports of a man who was chased by
Speaker 1: hundreds of men into the North Cronulla Hotel where he
Speaker 1: had to kind of find refuge inside this RSL attacking
Speaker 1: two young men in a car who turned down the
Speaker 1: wrong street. These two men were sort of beset by
Speaker 1: these crowds. There were glass bottles were thrown at the car,
Speaker 1: a window was broken, a man jumped on the hood
Speaker 1: of the car. One big moment of the day, and
Speaker 1: the thing that really comes to my mind when I
Speaker 1: think of the Cronulla riots is what happened at the
Speaker 1: train station. So according to contemporary accounts, crowds initially gathered
Speaker 1: sort of peacefully to do a sort of show of
Speaker 1: support for the lifeguard. That's what people who were there
Speaker 1: tend to say. But then there were sort of calls
Speaker 1: made in the crowd that like a train sort of
Speaker 1: quote full of Lebanese people was arriving in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. There were not that many people on
Speaker 1: the train, but anyone on the train who was a
Speaker 1: man of color, a non white man, was met with
Speaker 1: hundreds of angry white Australian men, many of whom were
Speaker 1: by that point drunk, who entered the train and began
Speaker 1: physically assaulting them. And there's all these images of police
Speaker 1: boarding the train carriage and like beating people away with
Speaker 1: night sticks to get out of the train station.
Speaker 2: Quite a few of those police officers have actually received
Speaker 2: Bravery awards and recognition because of the actions that they
Speaker 2: took on the train specifically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's really quite extraordinary to look at
Speaker 1: the Sydney Morning Herald also that day or the following
Speaker 1: day reported a man ripped a hijab off a young
Speaker 1: Muslim woman's head as she was trying to escape crowds
Speaker 1: at the beach. And there are also many, many contemporary
Speaker 1: videos of racist slogans being chanted by crowds.
Speaker 2: I do want to touch on you just mentioned the
Speaker 2: Sydney Morning Herald. You mentioned Australian Associated Press before.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it was an example of the importance of
Speaker 2: good journalism as well, because we relied so heavily, especially
Speaker 2: in the kind of pre social media era, on the
Speaker 2: quality news reporting that probably the next day or later
Speaker 2: that day online and some of these images are still
Speaker 2: used in education and school curriculum around what multicultural Australia
Speaker 2: looks like. And it's a real example for me of
Speaker 2: journalism at its best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we didn't have camera phones really exactly, those
Speaker 1: photographers and camera people and journalists being their other reason
Speaker 1: we know exactly what happened and in what order.
Speaker 2: So now it's twenty years since, give me a sense
Speaker 2: of what has changed since then.
Speaker 1: Well, Alan Jones is off the air and has been
Speaker 1: for many years, and it's currently facing court on separate
Speaker 1: criminal allegations. Another point of change is actually in those
Speaker 1: areas that I've mentioned, so Cronulla obviously, but also Rockdale,
Speaker 1: Cogra and Hurstville. I had a look at some census
Speaker 1: starter comparing two thousand and one to twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: What was really interesting to me was in Cronulla today
Speaker 1: there's actually a higher percentage of people who were born
Speaker 1: in Alia or England, while Australia wide those rates have
Speaker 1: actually dropped.
Speaker 2: So interesting.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile in Cogra and Hurstville and Rockdale there's a
Speaker 1: significantly higher percentage of people who were born overseas who
Speaker 1: now live there or who are speaking a language other
Speaker 1: than English at home than they were twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: So these areas have become even more what they were, even.
Speaker 2: More entrenched in those sorts of stereotypes that existed in
Speaker 2: two thousand and five. Yeah, and what can you tell
Speaker 2: me then about how that fits into Australia more broadly?
Speaker 1: Something that I found was interesting is so there was
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty four report from the independent Scanlon Foundation
Speaker 1: Research Institute, So they look at social cohesion, basically how
Speaker 1: harmonious is Australia's society. For that twenty twenty four report,
Speaker 1: researchers surveyed about six thousand Australians. They found that half
Speaker 1: of those people believe Australia is accepting too many migrants,
Speaker 1: that statistic has increased from pre COVID levels, and they
Speaker 1: found that one in three Australia that they surveyed have
Speaker 1: quote a somewhat or very negative attitude towards Muslims one
Speaker 1: in three. Despite that, though, the institute found that seventy
Speaker 1: one percent of these Australians said they believed quote accepting
Speaker 1: immigrants from many different cultures makes Australia stronger, and eighty
Speaker 1: five percent said multiculturalism had been good for Australia. So
Speaker 1: sort of saying like, overall we think, yes, this was good,
Speaker 1: but maybe right now we don't. But then there's also
Speaker 1: I would say looking outside of data. I know I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about data, but the thing that reminded
Speaker 1: me most of the Kronolar riots even though they weren't
Speaker 1: really violent per se, were the much for Australia demonstrations.
Speaker 2: Earlier this year, only a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: So while they didn't, as far as I'm aware, descend
Speaker 1: into chasing down Australians of color in the street, I
Speaker 1: think we can point to that as kind of the
Speaker 1: closest event to the Chronolal riots, not being violent in
Speaker 1: the same way, but just in terms of a demonstration
Speaker 1: of mostly white Australians gathering to say we don't want
Speaker 1: migration to this country, or we want a lot less
Speaker 1: of it than we currently have.
Speaker 2: And we've been hearing from Australia's security authorities for quite
Speaker 2: a few years now that some of that kind of
Speaker 2: far right extremism, the nationalism, that real kind of the
Speaker 2: exhibition of behavior that we saw in Cronulla in two
Speaker 2: thousand and five is the biggest security threat to Australia
Speaker 2: going forward. That's the view from Mike Burgess, the AZO chief.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting that twenty years almost to the day
Speaker 2: of the Cronulla Riots, and whilst quite a lot of
Speaker 2: Australia has changed, and especially the demographics of Australia have
Speaker 2: shifted a lot, as well, some of those core views
Speaker 2: seem to have remained.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were contemporary reports I was reading in
Speaker 1: the Herald from two thousand and five that there were
Speaker 1: people of known white supremacist neo Nazi groups on the
Speaker 1: ground in Cronulla that day in two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: and as we know, they have only sort of come
Speaker 1: out more into the open since then.
Speaker 2: A really important part of Australia's modern history. Lucy, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for take us through that. Thanks Sam,
Speaker 2: and thank you for joining us on the Daily OS
Speaker 2: for that episode. A big week of news, and we've
Speaker 2: got one more pod for you later this afternoon with
Speaker 2: the evening's headlines. Until then, have a great day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bunjelung Kalkutin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.