Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion; I support the suspension. People have the right to protest, but they have to do it peacefully. All around our country there has been a growing sense of lawlessness since 7 October. The violence involved in Melbourne's protest yesterday is shocking, and all too often governments aren't throwing the book at people who thumb their nose at the law and show no respect for their fellow Australians. Unlike yesterday, too often law enforcement officials aren't acting, because they're taking their cues from politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouths on this issue. And all too often, as yesterday, Greens MPs are encouraging or participating in such protests.

Yesterday people threw acid, faeces, bags of vomit, padlocks, apples, chairs, canned food and bottles at police. They punched horses and destroyed property. They set alight plastic bins and prevented firefighters from getting to them so that chemical fumes from burning plastic would pervade the air. These are among the worst incidents, but they're not isolated. This is Australia since 7 October. The protesters get more and more brazen because too often they're not dealt with by the full force of the law.

Australians are shocked by what we've seen since 7 October: the lighting of flares, the burning of flags and the chanting of slogans seeking to harm Jews at the Sydney Opera House on 9 October; the intimidatory drive-throughs in Jewish suburbs; the confrontations outside synagogues; the vandalism and firebombing of MPs' electorate offices, a straightforward terrorist act; the vandalism of war memorials; the vandalism of Jewish property, including schools, calling for death to Jews; hate preachers openly calling for the murder of Jews and vilifying Jews as being subhuman; the doxxing of Jewish creatives, artists and small businesses; a Greens MP repeating antisemitic tropes without being condemned by her own party; posters of Hitler going up all over Jewish suburbs; protests outside Jewish schools and synagogues; the violent protests at the Victorian Labor conference, which saw MPs being jostled and attacked and delayed the conference, forcing the Victorian Premier and Deputy Premier into a safe room; violent and aggressive protests at peaceful rallies against antisemitism; trespassing on and defacing the federal parliament; and our university campuses, where violence and intimidation go unchecked, where rapes are denied and where Hizb ut-Tahrir get a seat at the table.

Law-abiding Australians are struggling to recognise the country they love. On this side of the House we stand with law-abiding Australians and we say this lawlessness must stop. We stand with law-abiding Australians when we say let these protesters feel the full force of the law. We stand with law-abiding Australians when we say to this government that this is a time for moral clarity; this is not a time to have a bet each way. There are two things the government can do right now. Firstly they can support the motion to suspend standing orders to bring on this very important debate. Secondly they can support the judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses, because that's where the bad behaviour we saw yesterday originates. Today all of the major Jewish bodies in the country support the inquiry, none of the universities oppose the inquiry and the government's own people, like Marjorie O'Neill, the Labor member for Coogee in New South Wales, and Phil Dalidakis, the former Victorian Labor minister, are calling for this inquiry.

The government's own appointed antisemitism envoy, Jill Segal, has strongly recommended the judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campuses, and she has called into question the ultimate efficacy of the government's alternative inquiry undertaken by the Human Rights Commission. I want to quote Ms Segal's powerful words. She says:

… the situation is very grave and indeed much more serious and alarming than I expected.

Antisemitic behaviour is not only present on many campuses but is an embedded part of the culture. Universities have not taken appropriate action to denounce and suppress it: it has become systemic. The Jewish students are traumatised and feel isolated and unsafe. They are not participating as they should in university life. They have been told by their university administration to stay home for their own safety. This normalised antisemitism is incredibly dangerous to our society as it is an attitude and behaviour that eats away at the fabric of the mission of the tertiary sector. To date university leadership is either in denial about how serious and normalized antisemitism has become on their campuses or … has failed to truly understand what constitutes antisemitism and has responded by placating activist forces. …

The situation on Australian university campuses must change.

She goes on to demonstrate how judicial inquiries or royal commissions bring about important societal changes, particularly in institutions like universities, which have a particular role in developing the next generation.

It is for all these reasons that the suspension of standing orders must occur. What we saw on Melbourne streets yesterday cannot go unremarked by this House. We cannot continue to see the lawlessness which has pervaded our country—on university campuses, on our streets and in other places—continue unchecked.

See this speech in context