A man has been charged with ripping the jacket of Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster during a heated protest outside a Liberal Party fundraising event in inner-city Sydney.
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Protesters organised by the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney picketed the event at the Australian Technology Park, in Eveleigh, Friday November 10, calling for the evacuation of asylum seekers on Manus Island.
The event was attended by Liberal MPs Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton, as well as City of Sydney councillor Christine Forster, who said protesters tried to punch, and spit at, her as she made her way inside.
On Friday, Redfern police charged a 31-year-old man with malicious damage in relation to ripping Ms Foster's jacket and damaging a fence, and with hindering police in the execution of their duty.
A 32-year-old man was charged with malicious damage in relation ot damaging a fence and hindering police. Both were granted bail to appear in court in the coming months.
Two others, aged 27 and 24, were charged earlier on Friday with offences including assaulting police by spitting on an officer.
Ms Forster said at the time that she and her partner, Virginia Edwards, were pushed and shoved by protesters as they tried to move past the crowd and enter the fundraising event.
"It was extraordinary; it was a riot with people screaming in our faces, trying to spit at us, trying to punch us," she said.
Police escorted Ms Forster and Ms Edwards into the event, but Ms Forster said that, as protesters saw this, they grabbed her jacket to hold her back.
"I had about about three or four people grabbing onto me to try and stop me from getting in and, in the course of that, my jacket got shredded," she said.
Mr Abbott and Mr Dutton did not enter through the same entrance and were not confronted by protesters.
The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney has refuted the allegations and claims that it was police who ripped Ms Forster's jacket as they escorted her inside.
A statement posted online last Saturday said: "In contrast to Forster's clearly false allegations, the long-term abuse of asylum seekers presided over by successive Australian governments, and its tragic toll of death, suicide, violence, self-harm, severed families, abuse, despair and broken lives is amply documented."
A RACS spokesman, Ian Rintoul, said the protest was "essentially peaceful", and that the group was concerned about police responses to protesters.
"I do think there is a high degree in which the police response has been motivated by [causing] considerable embarrassment," Mr Rintoul said.
