Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I just begin by acknowledging the member for Macnamara. That was a very moving and heartfelt address. Before I came into this place, you and I met at an event for a Jewish school, and you said something to me that I've never forgotten: 'When you come into this place, never forget what that feeling is like. You never know how long it will last. And use every day to make a contribution'. You've just made an excellent contribution.

I don't claim to know this issue as well as you do, or as well as many other people do, but I often think of a perspective that I can understand a bit better. I was born in Dublin, in Ireland. When we came to Australia in 1988, I would often hear, in the following years, people give ill-informed comments on the status of Northern Ireland, about whether a unified Ireland should happen or whether it should always be part of England. Like this issue, it's complex and it's difficult. But, as a kid, growing up, I had the same dream, that Catholic and Protestant kids could go to school together, could work together, could marry and live. It just didn't make any sense to me that people who looked like family were at war with each other. I never understood that.

Maybe there are some parallels here. I've come in as a new member, straight into opposition. I'm happy to be here, but I know that most of my colleagues would like—and I would too—to be where you are one day, and we've got to earn that right. When I go to schools, or speak to people in the electorate, and they ask, 'What is it like?' one of the things I say is that it's been quite pleasant working with people from the other side in committees and in some of the training that we do. And, when it comes to defence and foreign affairs, I sing your praises. I'd like to think, almost all of the time, the new government has done a pretty good job on defence and foreign affairs—not perfect, and we will keep a close watch—but I think this was a mistake. It was a mistake in how it was handled.

I'm not going to stand here and say, 'I have the answers on the status of Israel's capital,' but I think the point that a sovereign nation can decide its capital is a seductive one. It makes sense; it just does. Was the timing of the announcement, on a by-election, a good thing? Probably not. It probably wasn't. But that doesn't justify this timing. That doesn't justify another mistake, and it could have been handled better. I had a note here about the Jewish holiday, and I saw, when someone else read it out, that you corrected them, so tell me if this is correct: Simhath Torah.

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