10 June 2025

What does the PM have to say about an Aussie journo being shot by police in the US?

| Chris Johnson
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Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the National Press Club and will be asked about the LAPD shooting of an Australian journalist. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.

Anthony Albanese delivers an address to the National Press Club today (10 June). He will no doubt be asked during the Q&A following his speech about an Australian reporter being shot by police in Los Angeles while doing her job.

It is something the Prime Minister should himself be taking up with US President Donald Trump.

The Los Angeles Police Department and National Guard troops have been clashing with demonstrators protesting in LA over Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The President, like any self-respecting dictator would, ordered the National Guard be sent in to sort things out.

The LAPD are firing rubber bullets at the crowd, and one hit Channel Nine’s Lauren Tomasi in the leg while she was reporting live to camera.

She wasn’t caught in crossfire; video footage shows a police officer taking aim directly at her and shooting.

A bystander can be heard yelling at the officer: “You just fucking shot the reporter!”

This is apparently what happens in today’s America.

It is as appalling as it is horrific, and the PM should be demanding some answers.

It will make for a tense face-to-face with the President at the G7 in a few days’ time when the pair are set to meet for a bilateral chat.

But this can’t wait until then.

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Before that meeting, there has to be a very high-level phone conversation about this alarming incident. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has issued a statement.

“The Australian Consulate-General in Los Angeles is in contact with an Australian injured in protests, and stands ready to provide consular assistance if required,” it says.

“Australia supports media freedom and the protection of journalists. All journalists should be able to do their work safely,

“The Smartraveller travel advice for the US currently advises Australians to avoid areas where demonstrations and protests are occurring due to the ongoing potential for unrest and violence.

“Australians should monitor the media for information and updates, and follow the instructions of local authorities.”

The PM received some immediate and unsolicited advice on the matter from a number of politicians.

The Greens led the charge, with Senator Sarah Hanson-Young issuing a statement over the “simply shocking” and “completely unacceptable” incident.

“The Prime Minister must seek an urgent explanation from the US Administration,” she said.

“As Albanese is preparing for his first meeting with President Trump, the first thing he must tell the President is to stop shooting at our journalists.”

Fellow Greens Senator Nick McKim agreed when asked about it, and suggested that waiting before the G7 was too long.

“[The Australian Government needs to] make its displeasure at what happened abundantly clear,” he said.

“And it needs to happen now. We don’t need to wait.

“It should be done at the highest possible level.

“If the Prime Minister is not going to pick up the phone, the Minister for Foreign Affairs absolutely should.”

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Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, also asked about it during an ABC interview, has called for an investigation over the targeted shooting, although he blames the whole thing on the demonstrators.

“It looks like there was a targeting there. I’m always loath to jump to conclusions though when you just see part of the footage,” Senator Canavan said.

“What there should be is a detailed investigation of all these matters, and of course, the principal responsibility here for this mess has to be what can only be described as insurrectionists.”

Senator Canavan, a Trump loyalist, was also at pains to point out that the LAPD isn’t under the responsibility of the US President.

Yet whether it’s the LAPD, the National Guard or a traffic cop, officials with guns who have a certain type of disposition have become more emboldened under this Trump Administration.

Some feel they can do almost anything they want now, because the President has got their back.

After all, he’s been pardoning thugs and criminals jailed under the previous administration.

Democracy is crumbling in the United States, but democracy in Australia demands that our leaders make it undeniably clear that deliberately shooting a reporter doing their job requires someone to be held accountable.

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Capital Retro7:05 am 11 Jun 25

The PM also said the reporter was wearing a helmet and identification that she was a reporter which she wasn’t.

He is a serial liar and gets away with it. This is another example.

Capital Retro5:02 pm 10 Jun 25

The “demonstrators” should read up on what happened at Kent State University, Ohio in 1970.

I, too, agree that journalists should be able to put their heads in a wood-chipper and come out unhurt. The UN should make this happen.

Michael Pless2:08 pm 10 Jun 25

Putting aside a lot of rhetoric in CJ’s article and the fact that he is unaware that “appalling” and “horrific” mean the same thing, I tend to agree with the sentiments as written. The footage of a police officer turning away from the demonstrators to point a gun at the reporter and shoot is hard to watch and harder to ignore. If (or more appropriately, because) Australia is not valued as an ally and Australians not valued as people then America needs to be declared a dangerous place to visit. (An Australian tourist (former police officer) was detained, strip-searched and imprisoned overnight before being deported on the basis that she had too many clothes for the duration of her visit. She was traveling to visit her American husband who serves with the US Army.) I could see America starting to descend into anarchy the last time Trump was in power and this time he is accelerating the rate of descent, sending America as a nation into a tail-spin from which it might not recover.

In our always growing anarcho-tyrannical system, that which is good is called bad and punished, while that which s bad is called good and rewarded. Other people prefer to just call this clown world.

Whatever the case, here’s a good example of what I mean:

1. During COVID, those who are not yet zombies went out in protest of the indefinably stupid measures that were being implemented, and were pelted with rubber bullets by police for their troubles. Everyone who is a zombie said this was good – if it ever got any air time in the media at all.

2. A journalist in LA – who is now at least a borderline criminal by virtue of the profession she currently holds – is shot with a rubber bullet during unrest that is directly linked to the toxicity that progressive anti-culture has unleashed on the world – an anti-culture that the journalist has no doubt helped to nurture – and now a consoling word from even Don Albanese is expected.

At least clown world hasn’t got what it takes to last much longer.

“A journalist in LA – who is now at least a borderline criminal by virtue of the profession she currently holds”

Hahaha, Vasily is definitely the person you want arbitrating over what is right and wrong.

Capital Retro10:18 am 10 Jun 25

“This is apparently what happens in today’s America.”

You mean California, not America.

No, he means ‘America’. California is trying its best to make sure it does not happen there. You should check out the interview with Governor Newsom.

It’s not just California. Other places, like Texas, are having protests. Trump isn’t targeting them because he has voters there, he doesn’t want to upset them. He’s hitting California hard because he hates it. He knows there’ll be pushback, so he hits harder. He’s a tyrannical despot.

Capital Retro5:00 pm 10 Jun 25

I haven’t seen any media reports about journalists being shot in Texas or anywhere else in the USA.

The journalist was shot by an LA Police Officer, not a National Guard.

Based on Albo’s lame silence when the Chinese navy targeted Australian navy scuba divers a couple of years ago he probably won’t say much.

He also might be best to avoid discussing immigration with Trump given how he’s lost control of our immigration intake despite promising to reduce it. For all his faults at least Trump is trying to address the US immigration debacle Biden left him.

1. fair criticism but ignores the level of subsequent engagement and protest that was handled at officials level.
2. bollocks, immigration is not out of control. A simple review of ABS and some explainers from Home Affairs shows the causation between covid and the change over the last couple of years.

Immigration is completely out of control. Here are the ABS numbers, way above what was planned. And or course the impact on housing prices, infrastructure, traffic and so on have been very negative. The highest levels in history.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/overseas-migration/latest-release#:~:text=of%20migrant%20departures.-,Migrant%20arrivals,and%20temporary%20skilled%20(49%2C000).

Yes, and actually read what the ABS says. It’s not out of control its working a backlog of approvals through the system and is declining towards pre-2020 numbers.

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