2005 Cronulla Riots - Background

Background

N.S.W. police had been recording racial and ethnic tensions and incidents in and around Cronulla since October 2005. There is also a history of conflict between Cronulla locals and those visiting from the Western suburbs ("Westies") with "bashings" common since the 1960s as part of a turf war between Westies and local surfies. Ironically on Australia Day, 26 January 2005 a non-racial riot occurred with around 2,000-3,000 young people in the Cronulla area engaged in "civil disobedience", at one stage hurling missiles at police attempting to control the crowd. Several of the youths who were arrested that day for assaulting police officers were also draped in the Australian flag at the time.

Just after 3pm on Sunday, 4 December 2005, police were called to North Cronulla Beach following a report of an assault on two off-duty surf lifesavers by four members of a group of eight Middle Eastern men. A verbal exchange had taken place after three lifesavers approached a group of four young Lebanese men on Cronulla Beach with both groups accusing the other of staring at them. One of the Lebanese men reportedly responded to the accusations, "I'm allowed to; now fuck off and leave our beach", to which a lifesaver responded, "I come down here out of my own spare time to save you dumb cunts from drowning; now piss off, you scum".

The verbal exchange escalated with one Lebanese youth attempting to defuse the situation. Another then threw a punch, missing, prompting a pushing match that escalated into a fight. One of the lifesavers was badly hurt after falling and striking his head. One of the lifesavers later informed police that the four were part of a group of eight Lebanese that had been on the beach most of the day and that there had been no problems with their prior behaviour. Despite media reports to the contrary, no "Middle Eastern men converged on the area" and there were no more than the original eight present.

A media report reported that there was already tension between the community and Lebanese youths before this event and people, particularly women, claimed to have been harassed, almost daily, by "groups of young Lebanese men" attempting to "pick them up" and describing the women as being "Aussie sluts".

The events were reported widely across the Sydney media, particularly on talkback radio. Alan Jones of Sydney's 2GB Radio called for "a rally, a street march, call it what you will. A community show of force", calling the people responsible for the attack on the lifesavers "Middle Eastern grubs". When a listener, Berta, commented that she had heard "really derogatory remarks" aimed at Middle Eastern people, Jones interrupted stating "We don't have Anglo-Saxon kids out there raping women in Western Sydney". Jones also broadcast and endorsed one listener's suggestion that bikie gangs be brought down to Cronulla railway station to deal with "Lebanese thugs" and that the event be televised, arguing that despite their reputation bikie gangs do "a lot of good things". By Thursday, Jones had stirred significant discussion, and stated "I'm the person that's led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla, now it's gathered to this." Jones was later found to have breached the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Code of Conduct section 1.3(a), as his comments were "likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity".

Police were concerned about the repurcussions of these events. Later investigations revealed that over 270,000 individual text messages were transmitted inciting a racially motivated confrontation at North Cronulla Beach the following Saturday.