Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Wentworth for raising this very real and corrosive issue in this House, and I consider the last speaker from the opposition to be part of that corrosiveness and that type of attitude towards an issue that we should be coming together on.

Last month Southern Sydney Synagogue, in Allawah, was vandalised with antisemitic slogans. The synagogue is just outside my electorate, with a rail line between us, but the congregation are very much part of the community. It wasn't just property damage; it was an attempt to instil fear in the small Jewish congregation, and it made the wider St George community feel less safe. The attack has been part of a pattern of antisemitic violence in Sydney, Melbourne and other parts of Australia. That violence has targeted homes and properties in areas where there are large Jewish populations. New South Wales and federal police are acting swiftly to find the culprits.

The government has legislated to ban the display of hate symbols and Nazi salutes, which homes in on the very public attempts to intimidate our communities. The government has imposed sanctions on the Terrorgram network. It has announced $100 million for countering violent extremism. The Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, has been conducting important work to determine the scale of this prejudice and provide advice to the government.

I have a very simple message to those perpetrating these antisemitic acts. If you think you are feeding a cause, you are not. You are making it worse for everyone. Disgust will be your reward. Sowing division and fear is not brave; it is completely unacceptable.

When we see what is taking place in this country, we see pure evil and pure racism, and we have seen it periodically in this country when it comes to different groups of people. This parliament has a responsibility to come together and show a really decent approach to this issue and to show leadership. The last speaker from the opposition spoke about leadership; he displayed none. Leadership would be to come together as one and support the member for Wentworth's motion. Leadership is understanding that these antisemitic acts and acts of racism divide people. They hurt people. They stay with you. Let me tell you; I can speak from personal experience about that.

Instead of trying to make this a political issue, instead of trying to paint one side one way and one side the other, why don't we display to the Australian community an act of bipartisanship in not accepting what's been going on, an act that will display to the Australian people that we are one in rejecting racism, rejecting antisemitism and rejecting hate in this country? That is required of this parliament—not what we are seeing now, where there is the attempt to sow division here. How can the Australian people have any faith in political leadership if we cannot come together on this one? I urge everyone to do it.

I am proud to be part of a government who has made many moves and done many things to support social cohesion in this country and to call out antisemitism as absolutely unacceptable. I'm proud of that—I am very, very proud of that. You cannot rewrite history and you cannot rewrite the truth. Politicising this issue is reprehensible, unacceptable and not a display of leadership to the Australian community.

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