Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'm saddened to rise to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024. I never thought I would come to this place and talk about antisemitism and the rise that we've seen over the past 18 months.

In 1947 a ship loaded with Hungarian migrants came to Australia. Most of them, but not all of them, were Jews, but they were all fleeing the persecution they'd seen during the Second World War from the fascist regime of the Nazis. Two of those on board were Joszef Kovach and Stephan Katerinka. They'd never met each other. Joszef Kovach was lucky; his parents were educated—they were teachers—and he was educated, and he'd learned to speak English at a young age. His whole family was wiped out by the Nazis. Similarly, Stephan Katerinka was from a poor family. His whole family was wiped out by the Nazis. That would have been the same story for most of those people on that boat.

They came to Australia and went to the migrant camp in Cowra, and then, when they were able to, they moved to Sydney, and they stayed friends. They set up a tea house in Paddington, and anybody who knows Paddington knows it is right in the centre of an area which has a large Jewish settlement today. They then went on to open a small goods shop, and they both prospered in Australia. Joe went on to work 30-odd years with Qantas, and Stephan had a very large chicken supply business down on the South Coast. One thing they had in common, apart from the persecution and the loss of their families, was a love of Australia. They loved the freedom in Australia and the democracy they had in Australia, and the fact that they could walk through the streets of Paddington without being persecuted for being a minority group. With what we have seen over the past 12 months, both Joe and Steve would be rolling in their graves.

I fear that this bill is too little, too late. The cynic in me says it's come about because we have an election coming up; I hope to God that is not true. What we've seen over the past 12 months is disgusting. It is disgusting to see in Australia. After the October 7 attacks, which can only be described as pure evil, we saw people standing on a world-renowned monument, the Opera House, chanting antisemitic slogans. That should have been stopped there and then. But the response from this government has been equivocal. Despite, time and time again, Peter Dutton, David Littleproud and the coalition putting forward motions to suspend standing orders to talk about this, to do something about this, they have been knocked down and silenced by Labor, or Labor has been equivocal. Worse still, some of the Independents and the Greens have been pouring fuel on the fire. That is making things even worse. Things have escalated from the Opera House to graffiti, firebombings and a thankfully-thwarted terrorist attack with a caravan full of explosives. This evil has been propagated by the fact that the Prime Minister of this country has been equivocal, that we haven't stood up and said, 'We will not put up with this.'

Recently in my electorate, on 1 June, I got a phone call to say that my office had been graffitied with 'eye on Rafah'. There was big red paint splashed everywhere in Coffs Harbour. It was the same red paint that had been used on my office only the year before saying 'koala killer'. These ideologues wouldn't know which river to which sea. It's just something shiny and new for them to get on. They're the same extremists who used to abuse me about the climate, which apparently was all fixed when Labor got in.

Dave Sharma came up to my electorate to speak to some of the Liberal Party members who are up in my electorate, and one of them asked a question about the antisemitic behaviour that had been occurring in Coffs Harbour. You don't have to go to Melbourne or Sydney for it to happen. Jewish members of my community are being abused. Jewish members of my community are having their businesses boycotted. One of them asked me, 'What can we do?' My response was, 'Why should you be doing anything when our leaders aren't?' The standard you walk past is the standard that you accept. Our leaders—the police commissioner in New South Wales, the Prime Minister, the commissioners in every state and territory—should be getting their troops together and saying, 'If you see this, if you hear antisemitic slogans, if you see people carrying flags from terrorist organisations, then you lock them up.' Have we seen that? How can we expect our community to stand up against these lunatics? That's what they are: lunatics with evil intentions. How can we ask our people, whether they're in the city or they're in the regions, to stand up against these evil actors, as they're called, when our leaders won't?

Only last week, I was waiting to do an interview on 2GB with Mark Levy about the crime that's happening in regional and rural Australia. The police commissioner, Karen Webb, was being interviewed by Mark Levy, who's doing his best to call out this antisemitic behaviour across the country. He asked why these people weren't being locked up for chanting 'from the river to the sea'. That chant is part of Hamas's charter from 2017—from the river to the sea—and it talks about the ethnic cleansing of Jews and getting rid of Jews. That's from their charter; that's not me saying that. This is a listed terrorist organisation. Mark Levy said to the commissioner, 'Why can't you lock them up for saying this?' Her response was, 'In my view, it doesn't amount to breaching section 93Z of the Crimes Act in New South Wales. Section 93Z says:

93Z Offence of publicly threatening or inciting violence on grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex or HIV/AIDS status

(1) A person who, by a public act, intentionally or recklessly threatens or incites violence towards another person or a group of persons on any of the following grounds is guilty of an offence—

(a) the race of the other person or one or more of the members of the group,

(b) that the other person has, or one or more of the members of the group have, a specific religious belief or affiliation …

'From the river to the sea' talks about the ethnic cleansing of Jews. How is that not a breach of section 93Z? The commissioner's response was: 'In my view, I don't see it as a breach.' Well, Commissioner, where is your advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions? You're not the judge, jury and executioner; you are the police commissioner. Go and get advice from the DPP. Or have you asked the court for a guideline judgment? They do it all the time. They make guideline judgments about drink driving; they make guideline judgments about all areas of law. It is not your call to say, 'I don't think it amounts to a breach.' It is up to the judiciary.

If any young police officer out there listens to this or sees this, I urge you: if you see antisemitic behaviour on the street, don't worry about what your commissioner says. Go and lock the offender up. Be brave. Have the courage of your convictions. Have the courage to be an Australian and act for all Australians. Take it to court. Make it a test case. Go to the High Court. Be a hero. Be a hero for the Australian people. Be a hero for the Jewish community because, if you don't, we know the commissioner won't. The commissioner won't stand up and enforce these laws. I've spoken to magistrates. I've spoken to judges and I've spoken to police. They are waiting for the imprimatur for those in charge to do something about this, but their hands are tied.

Commissioner, have some courage. Stand in front of your troops and say, 'We will not stand for this.' Mr Albanese, it's too late—and I think this bill is too late—but get on the front foot, election or not, and represent our Jewish communities, our Australian people. That's who they are. They are Australians, and anyone who propagates this evil violence or these evil words needs to be locked up for a very long time. If you're not a citizen, away you go. See you later. You're gone. You don't deserve the benefit of what Australia has. Do not bring your vile, evil ideology to our country and expect to get away with it, because you won't.

As a government, we need to be united. We know we won't get it from the Greens and some of the Independents because of their lunacy, but we need to be united as the coalition and Labor. We need to be strong, to show these people—show these vile creatures—who we are and how tough we can be and to get back to the country that Steve and Joe loved.

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