David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Antisemitism is the world's most ancient hatred, dating back thousands of years, and history is incredibly clear: if you allow antisemitism to gain even the smallest foothold in your society, you are no longer safe; your society is no longer safe. It is an evil that is always there below the surface and, at the first sign of it coming above the surface, it must be repressed. History could not be clearer on that point.

We face a crisis today of antisemitism in Australia, and we have to think about how we got here and how we can ensure that the crisis is curtailed and that we never, ever get into this position again. On 9 October 2023, that night of infamy at the Sydney Opera House, we were all shocked by what we saw. We'd seen nothing like that in our lifetimes—the most despicable sentiments towards Australians of Jewish faith.

What should have happened then is that we should have come together as a nation, led by our Prime Minister, and put in place a clear national strategy and plan to deal with antisemitism. But, unfortunately, that did not happen. It should have been the top of the Prime Minister's priority list after we saw that evil of 9 October. It didn't happen.

In November of 2023, the next month, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister and basically said, 'We need to significantly escalate our focus on stopping antisemitism in this country. We need to have a National Cabinet meeting, make this a national priority and really lead on this right now.' Again, the Prime Minister did not take up that offer and, in fact, did not even respond to the letter.

It's really important that we talk about these things, because this is a democracy, and the way democracies can progress is by learning from their mistakes, and it is self-evident that, from the beginning of this antisemitism crisis up to this day, immense mistakes have been made. We need to learn from that. We need to learn from the ongoing failure to address antisemitic acts as they arose in our community. We saw antisemitic displays not prosecuted. We saw antisemitic protests allowed to continue week after week, with no consequences for the people who held up those shameful signs and made those shameful statements.

Horrendously, we saw Australian students of Jewish faith afraid to go to university because of who they were—in Australia in 2024. That should never, ever happen in this country, but it did. Then we saw these acts escalated. We've seen horrendous acts of graffiti on synagogues around the country—on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, just outside my electorate, and so many others around the country, like the synagogue in Newtown—and on the childcare centre at Maroubra. Most shockingly, of course, there was the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. All of these things have happened in our country. What should have happened is that, back on 9 October, when we saw the face of antisemitism in Australia at the Sydney Opera House, our Prime Minister should have led the nation in a response. He didn't do that. That was wrong, and we need to be frank about it.

We now need to take action on things like mandatory sentencing for people who commit acts of terror. It sounds straightforward. We should do that. We need to have mandatory sentencing in relation to symbols of an antisemitic nature. We all need to move forward to address this antisemitism crisis in Australia and take steps to ensure that we never, ever again end up in this situation in our great nation.

See this speech in context