James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, it is, in some ways, a great disappointment to speak on a bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, that has become necessary because of actions that are happening within our community that I never thought I would live to see in modern day Australia. Some of the things that we see in the news, in fact, and experiences I have had in the streets of the Adelaide CBD belong more in a Hollywood movie about a bygone era that we look upon and think how grateful we are that that is in history. Alas, we are far from that. We are seeing this remarkably depressing blooming of disgusting antisemitic behaviour in our community, which brings us to the need to consider legislative change to address behaviour that we couldn't have foreseen would occur in modern Australia.

My heart certainly goes out particularly to members of the Jewish community in my electorate and across this country. I cannot imagine how they are feeling about the unrecognisable behaviour that they see and experience in this country that they love. Many of them descend from families that came to this country for refuge from disgusting antisemitism and the horrors of the Holocaust and have built such an amazing future for themselves and their families in this country. In some cases, they find themselves considering whether or not they have a future in this country anymore because of what we've seen happen, particularly since 7 October. It's been confronting. It's been appalling. It is completely un-Australian. We find ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity with the bill before us to strengthen our legislative framework at the Commonwealth level to address these remarkably disgusting, impossible-to-predict developing elements of behaviour in our society. The coalition has some specific issues and hesitations around amendments and around seeking to improve the legislation from the government that is before us, and I commend other coalition speakers who have contributed on this bill and who have outlined some of those issues.

We hope the government will engage in good faith to discuss with us our sensible suggestions of how to improve this framework. I hope we all want exactly the same thing. Indeed, apart from one vile element of the Australian political firmament—that is, elements of the Greens political party who couldn't even support a motion in the parliament condemning a terrorist action in the wake of the atrocities of 7 October—apart from that shameful little cabal, I know that the goodwill towards addressing this genuine, appalling rise of antisemitism in our society is shared almost unanimously in the chamber. We in the coalition look forward to being part of approving this bill and achieving the outcome we all want through its passage.

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