Vandals defaced Labor MP Peter Khalil’s inner Melbourne office on Monday morning.
The office was a crime scene on Monday as police and a hazardous materials team investigated.
Khalil,who was recently appointed the government’s special envoy for social cohesion,said he was dismayed.
“I have always fully supported the right to peaceful protest. This is not protest. This is vandalism. This is defacing property. Worse,this is using violent symbolic material or actions that are harmful to others ... in their place of work. It is completely unacceptable and it needs to be called out,” he said.
“Everyone has a right to express their ideological and political views. But you cannot say it is acceptable to express them through intimidation,physical harassment or actions that put people in harm’s way.”
Loading
He said the inverted red triangle symbol – which has become associated with pro-Palestinian activism but is also used to mark kill targets in Hamas’ social media content – had a connotation that was “disturbing and concerning”,while the stench was “unbearable and clearly a biohazard of some sort”.
Khalil,whose inner-north Melbourne seat of Wills has been a focus of pro-Palestinian activism and is a target of the Greens at the upcoming election,said he was concerned the people who had targeted his staff and office were unable to articulate their positions in a rational and respectful way.