14 December 2005 Sydney police given new anti-rioting powers
Police in Sydney are to be given new powers to deal with rioters following the recent disturbances in the suburbs.
New South Wales premier Morris Iemma said he would reconvene parliament on December 15th to pass new laws giving police greater powers to crack down on violent protests.
The suburbs of Cronulla and Maroubra were rocked by racially motivated violence this weekend.
On Sunday, 16 rioters were arrested and roughly 30 people injured as 5,000 white men attacked people of Middle Eastern descent.
The attacks are believed to be in retaliation for an earlier assault on two volunteer lifeguards, which was blamed on people of Middle Eastern appearance.
Referring to the outbreak of the violence, Mr Iemma announced: "These people have effectively declared war on our society and we're not going to let them win."
Rioting will now incur a penalty of 15 years, rather than five and the penalty for affray will be increased to ten years.
The measures to stem the rising violence come amid growing concern that it could have a detrimental effect on Australian tourism.
Australian prime minister John Howard has attempted to downplay this concern, arguing that every country has "incidents that don't play well overseas" and that people will not reject Australia as a tourist destination based on recent events. 
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