Australia news LIVE: Hezbollah flag wavers face jail, deportation ...

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to pick up the phone with Muslim leaders after reports that a Sydney Mosque held vigils for slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Speaking at a press conference in Sydney’s western suburbs, Dutton said that he respected every Australian’s right to practice their religious beliefs, but that he “cannot accept” that it is within the nation’s values to praise a terrorist organisation or its leader.

Protesters with a photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Melbourne on Sunday.Credit: AAP

“The prime minister should be on the phone to the leaders within the mosque, the Imams, the leaders in the Islamic community to make sure that this doesn’t take place,” Dutton said.

He claimed that previous prime ministers would have “taken a leadership role here” citing Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Bob Hawke, John Howard and Paul Keating.

“Anthony Albanese hasn’t [taken a leadership role], and that’s why we’re seeing this grid line continuously crossed. It’s not acceptable. We are a peace-abiding country,” Dutton said.

“We will not tolerate the presence of sympathisers for terrorist organisations in our community, and people who are here on visas or people who have the ability to have their citizenship stripped should be subject to the full force of the law.”

You can watch the full exchange between Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the ABC journalist outlined in the previous post here:

The government should have been more prepared for the “entirely predictable” protests that took place over the weekend in Melbourne and Sydney, says Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, as debate heats up over the handling of the protesters who attended the rallies with Hezbollah symbols.

Protesters with a photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Melbourne on Sunday.Credit: AAP

Dutton said he and the government were briefed months ago on the plan to evacuate people from Lebanon in the cause of an incursion by the Israeli military.

“The thought that the Government hadn’t planned for this or hadn’t thought about what would happen in this circumstance is completely inconceivable. ”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is holding a press conference from the Sydney suburb of Girraween.

Watch the doorstop live here:

Circling back to a breakfast TV interview this morning, in which Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie accused the government of being “weak and timid” in its response to protesters displaying symbols of the terrorist group Hezbollah in Melbourne and Sydney over the weekend.

Speaking on a Today panel with Labor Minister Amanda Rishworth, McKenzie accused Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke of being too slow to respond to instances of support for terrorist organisations in Australia since October 7 last year.

“If Tony Burke wants to say, ‘We will not hesitate to cancel visas,’ well, Mr Burke, you’ve hesitated for 12 months on this. We want to see action,” McKenzie said.

A demonstrator holds an image of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a protest in Sydney on Sunday.Credit: Isabelle Dellerba

“If you’re a visa holder supporting a terrorist organisation, you need to be deported. If you are an Australian waving one of those flags, you need to be charged.”

McKenzie then accused Labor of taking a “weak, timid and soft approach”, calling on the government to take “swift, determined action that sends a very clear signal”.

Rishworth opened her response by stating she “completely disagrees” with McKenzie’s assessment, asserting that the government had been “unequivocal” in its condemnation of those indicating support for terrorist organisations.

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“More importantly, we put laws through the parliament to say that the displaying of terrorist symbols such as flags like this was a criminal offence, that glorifying terrorism was a criminal offence ... the previous government didn’t put those laws through. We put those laws through.”

Rishworth concluded that the AFP was investigating, saying she had trust in law enforcement.

On the issue of visas and deportation, Rishworth said we don’t yet know if the protesters had visas or were Australian citizens.

“There are a lot of assumptions being made here,” Rishworth said.

“But Tony Burke’s been very clear; he will not hesitate to cancel or cancel visas of people that are inciting terrorism. We’ve been clear and we’ve been strong on this, and it’s disappointing the politics that the opposition is making with this.”

This masthead does not suggest that any person pictured at these protests will or should be charged, given the context of their presence at the protest is not known.

Overnight, Foreign Minister Penny Wong made a further plea for Australians in Lebanon to leave.

“There is a risk Beirut airport may close for an extended period,” Wong wrote on X.

“We continue to urge Australians in Lebanon to take the first opportunity they can to depart. Please do not wait for a preferred route.”

Wong said she understood it was a “difficult decision to leave” and acknowledged the difficulties of finding a flight out of Lebanon.

She said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was working with airlines to get Australians seats on commercial flights.

The defamation trial that ousted Liberal Moira Deeming launched against Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto is continuing today, for the 11th day. You can watch today’s proceedings with the Federal Court’s live stream here.

After four days on the witness stand, Pesutto finished cross-examination late yesterday afternoon.

His former deputy leader in the upper house, Matt Bach, will be his first witness to face cross-examination from Deeming’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, today. Bach had to fly in this morning from his new home in the United Kingdom to face the Federal Court and is due to fly out this afternoon.

Ousted Liberal Moira Deeming and barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC.Credit: Eddie Jim

Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick will be the next witness to be cross-examined, followed by upper house leader Georgie Crozier.

About 100,000 people, including 60,000 children, have crossed the border from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing the escalating hostilities on the state’s southern border, as the Israeli military begins a “limited” ground incursion.

UN figures suggest the violence in Lebanon had displaced 1 million people or almost a fifth of the population of Lebanon.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburbs of Beirut.Credit: nna\advidler

Save the Children’s Syria Response Director, Rasha Muhrez, says children are “paying the highest price” for the conflict.

“Some children have been forced to walk for hours under the threat of airstrikes, just to reach a border that’s still dangerous,” she said.

Save the Children is calling for an immediate de-escalation of the violence in the region.

Read more on the incursion here.