Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 amends the Criminal Code Act 1995 to strengthen existing offences for urging force or violence and the display of hate symbols and to introduce new offences for threatening force or violence against targeted groups and their members. The fault aspect for the existing offences of urging force or violence is also to be reduced from 'intent' to 'recklessness'. The bill also proposes to remove an existing good faith defence for offences of urging force or violence and for the proposed offences of threatening force or violence. The groups against whom it would be an offence to threaten force or violence would be distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin, or political opinion.

When this bill was introduced in September last year, the coalition offered to pass the bill with haste, but the government refused. Perhaps if it hadn't we would not have seen the horror we have seen over summer.

I am nevertheless relieved it is happening in this sitting fortnight, which is most likely the last sitting fortnight of the 47th Parliament. This is a serious piece of legislation which responds to abhorrent behaviours by evil actors—behaviours which we have seen growing in incidents in Australia since the atrocities of October 7. On that October 7, Hamas, a recognised terrorist organisation, attacked Israel. Two days later we saw the first instance of what, at least to me, seemed to be a fundamental breach of the Australian ethos of equality, acceptance and tolerance; our celebration of our diversity and our heritage; and our proud boast of being one of the best multicultural countries in the world.

The Sydney Opera House sails were lit up with blue and white in recognition of the atrocities Israel had just suffered. Yet there was a protest beneath those sails, and antisemitic chants were heard. There is debate about what occurred that night, but the images speak for themselves. Watching them, you see an anti-Israel mob setting off flares and chanting death wishes to Jewish Australians. That protest was advertised by the Palestine Action Group on that day, while the murder of Jewish people along the Gaza Strip was still ongoing and as the 251 hostages of Hamas began what has become for so many more than a year in captivity.

A day later, Sheikh Ibrahim Daoud addressed a large protest in Lakemba in Western Sydney, and he cried to the crowd:

I'm elated. It's a day of courage, it's a day of resistance, it's a day of pride, it's a day of victory.

That was the beginning. Since then there has been a more than 700 per cent increase in antisemitic attacks and antisemitic behaviour in this country.

As we in the coalition have raised elsewhere, time and time again, the Prime Minister stands condemned for failing to address these matters as and when they occur. He has been vastly outshone by the New South Wales Premier, whose forcefulness of word and belief demonstrates what could and should be done with a moral compass.

Shortly after the October 7 attacks, I travelled to Israel on what I think remains the only bipartisan trip to Israel since the atrocities of that day. The members for Macnamara and Higgins attended, along with the member for Fisher and Senators Birmingham and Fawcett. We went to Tel Aviv in Jerusalem as well as Sderot on the Gaza border, a town that, at the time, had a population of 3,000 down from 37,000 before the attacks. We visited the kibbutz Kfar Aza to see where the terror of October 7 and the days that followed had begun. We listened to soldiers, parliamentarians, local MPs, people who run civil services for residents, families of hostages and locals grieving their lost ones. We also met with the Palestinian Authority. I have never encountered so many shades of grief as I saw in that week.

There was an overarching desire for peace on all sides but a recognition that that cannot happen without the disablement of Hamas, a terrorist organisation that is roughly 70 kilometres from the towns of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It's extremely close; you can get there in less than a couple of hours. It's extremely present. It's a terrorist organisation, which, short and simple, will accept nothing less than the eradication of Israel and her people. It was that week while I was in Israel that we saw the Albanese government sending horrendous mixed messages regarding Israel's right to defend herself. While we were there, the Albanese government joined others at the UN General Assembly calling for a ceasefire, along with—almost as an afterthought—the immediate release of hostages.

I was with the member for Macnamara on the bus late at night, travelling from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, I think. We had just missed rocket alerts and shelter commands in Jerusalem. Josh was on the bus; he took a call, and his face went grey. May I say it takes a lot to turn the member for Macnamara's face grey; he is one of the most jovial and optimistic blokes in this place—full of grace and often full of giggle. He doesn't do grey well. 'Are you okay, buddy?' I asked him. 'Hmm,' came the stony response. He put up a good front the next day. He did a fair swathe of media, and he was clear and compelling in his description of what we were seeing in Israel: 200,000 people displaced from their homes and the stories of 1,200 people slaughtered over that weekend of 7 and 8 October.

As I have said elsewhere, I commend the member for Macnamara's moral clarity and his constant voice for Jewish Australians. Together with the efforts of the member for Berowra, they have made this place and this country a better place, reminding us of our better selves, living in not just a tolerant but a safe and welcoming country for people of all faiths and backgrounds. But their grace has failed to stem the tide of antisemitic acts which have blighted our beautiful country over the last 15 months: the member for Macnamara's office was graffitied and burned in June 2024, putting at risk the lives and wellbeing of his staff and other residents of that building; the Adass Israel Synagogue was burned to the ground in December 2024; a car in Woollahra was set alight and anti-Israel graffiti littered the suburb in November 2024; the same again happened in Woollahra a month later; in January of this year, two more synagogues were vandalised with swastikas; a childcare centre was set alight, topped off with more graffiti; the former home of the co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry was vandalised with red paint; more cars and more graffiti; a school was vandalised with antisemitic graffiti; a caravan with explosives was discovered alongside an antisemitic note; earlier this week, eggs were thrown at women in Bondi in Sydney, with the Strike Force Pearl's commander treating the matter as an antisemitic attack owing to the women's clothes potentially identifying them as targets of that nature; and, in recent nights, a home in Middle Park in Melbourne has been defaced with antisemitic graffiti.

I thank the Executive Council for Australian Jewry for their work tracking and reporting anti-Jewish incidents in Australia in 2024. Their report—theECAJ Report on Anti-Jewish Incidents in Australia 2024—makes for harrowing reading. Reading it, you will see the incidents I listed above; they don't even scratch the surface of what has been happening in our country. The language used in some of the other incidents described in this report is deeply distressing, like a graffito of supposed 'Zionists': a caricature of a man with big ears, a big nose, horns and long, witch-like fingers. There have been physical assaults on Jewish Australians walking in a public park and going to a 7-Eleven, and there have been rocks thrown, spitting and Red Bull cans thrown out of cars at gatherers around a synagogue. It's endless, harrowing and compulsory reading. And while I'm grateful for organisations like the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, who have worked for decades to build awareness of Israel in this place and on collaboration and affection between our two countries, I do not necessarily need these reports to know something terrible is happening in this country.

In my own electorate of Flinders on 12 November 2023—the day after Remembrance Day—a statue of a World War I soldier which had been carved into a tree stump was vandalised with a swastika. The RSL cleaned it up, cut it down and put the statue behind the walls of the RSL garden where it would be safe. In November 2024 swastikas were spray-painted across the main road of the Flinders township and upon the I Am sculpture which sits beautifully in the centre of town. At various points, swastikas have been painted on the roads or on our 'welcome to township' signs. I was even told recently on a visit to the Rosebud Country Club that someone had carved swastikas into the sand bunkers. It's bizarre and it's sick.

But beyond the evidence of the electorate is the evidence of my friends.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:33 to 12:53

Beyond the evidence of antisemitism in my electorate is the evidence of my friends. One of my dearest friends lives in Dover Heights, down the road from the attack on the former home of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin. If you need reminding, on 17 January emergency services were called to Dover Heights when four cars were damaged and one was graffitied with the words 'F*** Israel', and another vehicle with 'F*** Jews', which was also set alight. At the time, out of concern for my friend, I suggested she come and stay with me for a few days, maybe with some sun on the Mornington Peninsula, to get away from it all. Her response was ferocious:

Thanks Z. But what I really need is some law enforcement to create a deterrent. The fact that this happened the day after a ceasefire agreement was announced shows this has little to do with the Middle East and is anti-semitism pure and simple. I am not hiding. I am angry.

After the attacks in Kingsford last weekend I checked in with her again, and she replied:

My family member goes to school there and is already terrified. Last night another family member called in a panic to check we were ok, as she saw a whole lot of police and ambulances heading in the direction of Dover Heights.

At other times she has told me of sleepless nights punctured by the sounds of helicopters overhead. This is Australia. This night terror has no place here.

The Prime Minister has chopped and changed his language about the stark antisemitism we have been seeing over the last 15 months, and last week we had an astonishing statement by the Treasurer in response to the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives alongside a list of addresses of Jewish organisations, businesses and homes. On the Today show last week the Treasurer said:

What it shows is that the fears that a lot of Australians in the Jewish community have are not always unfounded.

Not always unfounded! I know he apologised afterwards—and what a relief that he did—but it hints to you the mistrust this government has towards Australia's Jewish community and the belittling of its well-founded fear of violence.

This bill is unfortunately necessary because of the mixed messages from this government, which has allowed hate free rein. But it's not just the provisions of the bill which matter; it's the use of them, as my friend so rightly pointed out. Antisemitic displays must be prosecuted and antisemitic protests must be stopped. Existing laws have not been used. Protests in our street in which antisemitic displays have been paraded have dragged on for months. Universities have set up antisemitic camps. While this bill will mitigate some of the government's failures, we can only hope the provisions will be used. Existing provisions of the Criminal Code have not been used—like division 80, which makes it an offence to urge violence against individuals or groups on the basis of race, religion and the like.

The coalition has been calling for action for months. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has been calling for action for months. The Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council has been calling for action for months. Jewish places of worship and scholarship, Jewish businesses and Jewish schools have been calling for action for months. Jewish families, their friends and my friend have been calling for action for months. This week we have spent some time in contemplation of the antisemitic blight brought upon this beautiful country. Maybe now action will follow.

Sitting suspended from 12:57 to 1 5:5 9

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