Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wannon for his comments. One of the things that makes me so proud to be the member for Hotham is the incredible community that I get to live in and be a part of. I represent one of the most multicultural electorates in all of Australia. When we tell the story of multiculturalism, a lot of people talk about public policy and strategies, the Whitlam government and those kinds of things. I don't think about those things; I think about my community and the fact that the reason we live in such a beautiful, harmonious country is that people, constituents of mine, have lived side by side sharing their cultures, sharing their religions, having their children play together, learning from each other and building up that beautiful social fabric.

In the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, we get to love and enjoy that every single day, but, from time to time, that social fabric does come under strain. One of the most concerning things that I've seen happen in my adult lifetime in this country is the rise in antisemitism that we've seen around our country in recent times. That threat is felt really deeply in my community. I have a very culturally diverse community, and I'm very lucky and privileged that that includes a Jewish population. Of course, I talk to my Jewish constituents, and they tell me about the deepest feelings that they have about what they're experiencing today as Australians. The fears that they hold for themselves, their families and their communities are fears that reach into every single part of their lives.

One of my jobs as a member of parliament is to speak about the experiences of different constituents of mine and to share those with and express those to the rest of the country. I really want people to understand what's going on for this community at the moment. There are lots of experiences that Australians have within their stories of discrimination, and I'm always very open to hearing those stories. I want people to know that, for our Jewish Australians at the moment, multiple people in the community have talked to me about the fact that they're living with a kind of antisemitism at the moment that they never believed could possibly happen in Australia. I really want people to understand that. Obviously in our experience as human beings, we don't carry that burden of experience with us everywhere we go, but I want people to understand what is going on for the community now is very real and is affecting every part of their lives as Australians.

I'm really lucky to have a Chabad centre in Bentleigh East that welcomes me into their beautiful community. This is not just a religious institution; it has this beautiful childcare centre. Jewish children of varying degrees of orthodoxy come together to get that early learning and to be steeped in the Jewish culture that they will take with them for the rest of their lives. It is genuinely the most beautiful and amazing place. With some boundary changes in my electorate, another Chabad centre, in Carnegie, will now come into my electorate. These two Chabad centres invited me to join in their Hanukkah festival at Packer Park around Christmas time, and I want to thank them for that. They welcomed not only me but my three beautiful children into this amazing religious celebration. It was a really beautiful experience, and I'll just be forever grateful for the loving, tender care that they gave to my children and to me. I really want to thank them for that. Of course, the conversations I have with Jewish Australians are often had in these environments, and I've heard from that community about the real fears that people have dropping their children at child care. Come on, that's not an experience that an Australian should be having in our country. People feel fearful wearing a yarmulke and walking down streets that are nearby to my electorate that have really strong Jewish traditions and Jewish populations. This shouldn't be happening in our country.

I'm really hopeful that the parliament will be able to speak with one voice about what comes out of the legislative process here, but I want to say really clearly to our Jewish Australian community that you are loved. You are loved by our country, you are cherished and you are an essential part of what it is to be a modern Australian country. This parliament is acting this week to try to better protect you, and we're really committed to that. I'm proud to be a part of a government that's taking decisive action on the matter of antisemitism. This is a poison in our country, and it deserves the most powerful possible action.

That's why I'm proud to support this bill. The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 will strengthen the law against hate speech in this country. It will create new criminal offences to stamp out violence and hatred. It's my hope that this law will send a really clear and unambiguous message that the threats that this community has experienced—these acts of violence, these acts of hatred—are utterly unacceptable in this country. I'll be supporting the bill because it's unacceptable to me and, on behalf of the people of Hotham, it's utterly unacceptable to our community.

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