Jess Wilson and the Victorian Liberals had to do something to win back disaffected conservatives after their preselection disaster, and this is a good pitch…

The Liberals have announced new laws ‘to protect war memorials and cultural sites’ with theoretical penalties up to 10 years behind jail and a demand to force perpetrators to cover the cost of repairing the damage.

This follows the introduction of a similar law by New South Wales Labor Premier Chris Minns after activists repeatedly desecrated statues related to Australia’s colonial history, often using pro-Palestine and Indigenous slogans.

While obviously aimed at the assault on colonial-era monuments, which have been attacked as part of an ongoing decolonisation project, the scope of the new laws includes cultural, historical, religious, and military installations.

Horrifyingly, the desecration of war memorials has become somewhat of a sport for activists. Many believe this escalation has taken place after vandalism went unpunished.

The desecration of memorials is particularly grim.

Honouring the war dead used to mean something, even to those who disagreed with the politics of a particular conflict, but a new type of racially-charged activism has taken hold of Victoria. This behaviour runs parallel to a crime wave that has resulted in amnesty machete bins which press upon the goodwill of criminals to surrender their arms. Welcome to progressive Victoria…

Eighteen serious acts of vandalism have occurred in Victoria since 2020, with no charges laid despite some of the offenders bragging on social media.

Whether or not the judiciary, which has a habit of going soft on poor little machete-wielding grand-theft-auto enthusiasts, chooses to enforce these proposed penalties remains to be seen.

Those replying to Jess Wilson’s announcement on social media have also asked if and how these laws would get through the new Voice shadow Parliament.

To this we might add, how would the left-leaning press handle an arrest?

You can already imagine the headlines, I’m sure.

Some activists are caught dismembering a Captain Cook statue and claim it to be an act of reparation, while another adorns war memorials with Palestinian slogans and insists it’s ‘self-defence’. Tearing apart the graves of our war dead might be written off as an act of catharsis for groups whose ancestors were the victims of their military campaign.

It is not so far-fetched. We have already seen activists defend similar acts as valid expressions of frustration and mount opposition to repairing and replacing the damaged statues. They were overruled … this time.

Allowing violence to successfully remove historically important statues is an affront to civil society and a political endorsement to criminals to continue inciting violence against racial groups, in this case, Australians of colonial descent. How did we get to a place where we are too frightened of anonymous thugs to display our heritage on public streets?

So, congratulations to Jess Wilson for daring to take this important topic to the election.

As for the ruling Labor Party, they insist there are already rules covering these acts of cultural violence. Why haven’t they been enforced? Police have extended powers regarding hate and incitement, including to probe social media. Where are the arrests? If police can hunt down relatives visiting each other during Covid, surely they can stake-out our Captain Cook statues and arrest vandals?

Still, at least Jess Wilson is offering the people of Victoria the chance to express their frustration at this largely unpunished wave of cultural vandalism at the polls.

Her party wrote on Facebook:

‘A Wilson Liberal and Nationals government will introduce tough new laws to protect war memorials and cultural sites, with penalties of up to 10 years in jail and offenders forced to pay for the damage. Since 2020, at least 18 memorials and statues have been vandalised, without a single charge laid. Sacred places deserve protection, and this behaviour will not be tolerated under a government I lead.’

Australians are starting to feel as if their cultural heritage is being ripped apart while Victoria marches ahead with ‘Treaty’ and ‘Voice’ – both rejected in a referendum.

Whether real or not, there is a prevailing sentiment that this lack of accountability for cultural criminals is another expression of ‘two-tier policing’.

When it comes to the policy itself, some have replied to the Opposition Leader suggesting it be changed to a mandatory 10 years in jail, to ensure that it is properly enforced.

Victoria has become a disturbing experiment in race politics where expressions of political violence in the form of decapitating statues and smashing war memorials has become a symptom of a deeper sickness rotting the state beneath the Labor government. It is the consequence of decades of identity politics.

Preaching grievance has bred nothing but destruction.

Jess Wilson’s policy is not about law and order at all. It is about dipping her toe into the culture war to see if anything bites. Good on her.