Dutton breaks down during police tribute
Alex Mitchell |
An emotional Peter Dutton has broken down in tears during a moving tribute to police officers killed in the Wieambulla shooting tragedy.
The opposition leader and Nationals counterpart David Littleproud both choked their way through speeches in parliament on Thursday, paying respects to Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow.
Neighbour Alan Dare was also killed in the tragedy.
Mr Dutton, a former Queensland police officer, said “three wonderful Australians” had paid the ultimate price while serving their community.
“Three people who embodied compassion, commitment and courage during their lives and in their final moments,” he told parliament.
Mr Littleproud, the MP representing the area, said the fallen officers were “the greatest locals we’ve ever had”.
“They had pure intent to serve their community, and they were met with malicious intent, with a vile outcome that shattered the innocence of two small country towns,” he told parliament.
“”The bravery … being able to escape a situation they weren’t prepared for, they had no intelligence it was coming, is something mere mortals would find hard to comprehend.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also paid tribute, thanking all officers involved for their courage in the line of fire.
“It should have been an ordinary summer’s day on the Western Downs, a day of warmth under that big blue sky,” he told parliament.
“Instead that quiet was shattered by the gunfire of an atrocity, a vicious and deadly ambush that has stolen lives, broken hearts, devastated a community and shocked our nation.”
Earlier, Mr Dutton said Australians should be concerned about the rise of anti-authoritarian “lunacy” shown by the killer Train family.
Three members of the family – former school principal Nathaniel Train, his brother Gareth and sister-in-law Stacey – killed the officers and Mr Dare at a rural property in the western Darling Downs.
Gareth Train subscribed to a number of conspiracy theories including the 1996 Port Arthur massacre being a false-flag operation.
Mr Dutton said the anti-government rhetoric being shared should concern any “right-thinking Australian”.
“We’ve seen in recent years the spread of disinformation on the internet and the way in which that infects people’s minds and changes their whole persona, their whole perspective and causes them to commit … extreme acts,” he told reporters.
“You worry about the information your children are accessing online … they can be encouraged to spread all sorts of conspiracy theories and subscribe to those and spread that hatred and we should be very concerned about that.”
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said security agencies were considering the implications for national security after initial reports of the perpetrator’s online radicalisation and violent extremism emerged.
“It is absolutely clear … that conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation – problems as old as time – are being turbocharged by technology into terrible acts of violence,” she said.
The minister said this was a new kind of security threat and parliament would have to consider deep and important policy questions to address how Australia prevented such crimes.
“But today is not the day for those discussions. Today is a day for grieving,” she said.
AAP
