Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian people will be very disappointed with the attempts to divide rather than bring people together in the speech that we just saw. What the Australian people know and what the Leader of the Opposition himself knows is that this government condemns antisemitism and this government seeks to bring Australians together, recognising that we are stronger because we are a multicultural community where there is mutual respect. The Leader of the Opposition knows that. He can't look at me right now, because he knows what I am saying is true. You keep looking at your phone, Leader of the Opposition.

Social cohesion is a responsibility that we all share. I take that responsibility seriously. Those on this side take that responsibility seriously. Actually, it's in our national interest that we all take that responsibility seriously. As the Prime Minister outlined in question time for question after question today, we take advice from the same security agencies that those opposite did. We follow the same processes that those opposite followed and, indeed, have the same personnel.

Beyond that, this government has proudly and happily invested in efforts to boost our social cohesion explicitly to address antisemitism in this country. There is no place for it, and we will take that work and that responsibility seriously. As the Leader of the Opposition himself knows, there is $25 million in security funding to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in response to the Jewish community's explicit security needs. We saw $10 million in further support to securing the faith based places grants program, improving security at religious schools—again, something the Leader of the Opposition knows himself that we did and something that is on top of the funding that has already been delivered. We've seen funding to the Department of Education to help support states and territories with delivering mental health and wellbeing support to students at Jewish and Islamic schools. We've seen the Department of Health provide $3 million of funding for mental health and community wellbeing. We've seen funding to the Australian Human Rights Commission for targeted communications to increase awareness about combating racism and hate—again, a responsibility we all share. And we've seen the appointment of a special envoy to prevent antisemitism and to advise government. I also note my good colleague here at the table, the member for Bruce, is also doing excellent work making sure that we do everything we can to bring people together.

I did notice that, when the Leader of the Opposition put his MPI in, he said he was going to talk about the cost of living, but instead we just saw a dummy-spit because he couldn't debate his motion, because he stood up at the wrong time. He didn't choose to debate the very MPI that he himself introduced. The Leader of the Opposition this morning wanted to talk about cost of living, and this afternoon he didn't. It's a bit like how, when he's on the east coast, he says that he doesn't support production tax credits for Western Australia's critical minerals industry and, when he gets over to Western Australia, he spends five days there and says that he does. There are different stories in the morning and in the afternoon. There are different stories on the east coast and on the west coast.

This Leader of the Opposition mentioned, in his remarks just then, 'gutlessness'. Well, I'll tell you what's gutless, Leader of the Opposition: not going to Collie, where you plan to build a nuclear power plant. You spent five days in Western Australia—

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