Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I must take up the Greens leader and member for Melbourne when it comes to some of his colleagues who've been really revving up the crowds and going to violent protests in Melbourne, which, sadly, have been very much against the Jewish community. They are now basically calling for peace and harmony when the Greens leader himself and his Greens colleagues voted so many times against motions supporting the Jewish people in Australia and condemning Hamas. All of a sudden—I think because of election results in Queensland and also some council results—the Greens have realised, 'We might just want to get out there and support the Jewish community a tiny bit.'

The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 is necessary because of repeated failures of the Albanese government—in particular when it comes to the Prime Minister. Rather than stamping out antisemitism right from the start and really showing strong leadership in calling it out, especially when it started at the Opera House in New South Wales—sadly, that hasn't taken place. We're a country that prides itself on treating people equally regardless of faith or background, which is so important. It's a core national value. Antisemitism is a direct rejection of that value and of being Australian.

Hamas is a Palestinian armed group and political movement in the Gaza Strip. We should never forget—and again, I didn't hear the Greens leader say this—why this awful situation has happened. It goes back to 7 October 2023, when Israel was attacked, with Hamas killing around 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages, of which we're now seeing some of the remainder being released. The 7 October attacks are the single greatest loss of Jewish lives on any day since the Holocaust. Jewish businesses, homes, cars and synagogues in Australia have been targeted, and the spread of antisemitism in Australia after 7 October has just been relentless, especially in recent months. It started with those demonstrations. Can I say not everyone's attending those demonstrations for violent means, but sadly they attracted a number of people who were motivated in that way.

Obviously, when we've got these violent protests and we have Greens members of parliament attending those—why on earth would you go to a violent demonstration in Melbourne with this awful behaviour? It goes back, again, to Prime Minister Albanese, the leader of the Labor Party. He didn't take decisive action right from the start. He didn't condemn the antisemitic attacks and ensure that offenders faced legal consequences for saying the most awful things about the Jewish community just days after the awful terrorist attack, and we'll call it that, in Israel. There are laws in Australia that he could have directed the AFP and law enforcement agencies to use. The Prime Minister has failed to acknowledge how serious the situation was. He could have used existing laws under division 80 of the Criminal Code against urging violence against groups defined by race or religion, but they weren't used.

As I mentioned, two days after this awful attack in Israel, on 9 October, there was a pro-Palestinian protest march from the Sydney Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House. This is where the awful chanting against the Jews happened. I obviously won't repeat what was said. Basically, as Israeli Australians were mourning, they were getting racially abused in our streets outside our famous Sydney Opera House. It then went on to universities, where we had protestors take over campuses. In May 2024, students staged protests at Deakin University, Monash University and the University of Melbourne calling for universities to cut ties with companies linked to Israel, and they sat there. Can I just say, I spoke to a number of Muslim students who were very much intimidated themselves because they felt that the university protests had been infiltrated by others with the view of spreading hatred against the Jewish community.

The following are some of the antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne since October 2024. On 25 May 2024, Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne, Australia's largest Jewish school, was graffitied. On 13 October, there was antisemitic graffiti on a Jewish bakery in Sydney, with a note left for the owners reading, 'Be careful.' On 21 November, cars were torched—and this is where the violence really started to happen—and buildings were vandalised in Sydney's east, an area with a large Jewish population. On 6 December, Adass Israel Synagogue was firebombed in Melbourne. This was obviously a terrorist attack. This has now got to the stage of causing mass fear in the Jewish community, where they're targeting their faith and going right after them.

On 5 January 2025, a man was charged for allegedly threatening worshippers near the Chabad North Shore synagogue in northern Sydney. We've just had this roll-on of awful attacks against the Jewish people. On 10 January, Allawah synagogue in Sydney's south-west was graffitied with the Nazi hakenkreuz symbol. On 11 January, there was the graffitiing and attempted arson of Newtown Synagogue in Sydney's west. On 11 January, cars were vandalised and graffitied in Sydney. On 16 January, a federal taskforce made its first arrest, charging a man for allegedly making death threats and vandalism. On 17 January, cars were torched and a building formerly owned by a Jewish community leader was vandalised. I'm a former police officer, and it is clear that these attacks are rolling on every couple of days now.

The big one was on 19 January 2025. A caravan containing explosives was found in Dural, Sydney. Questions were raised to the Prime Minister about whether he was briefed by ASIO and law enforcement and on what day, or whether he did not want to know about it. This is an exceptionally serious matter which could have ended up as Australia's worst terrorist attack. On 21 January, a childcare centre was set alight and graffitied in Sydney's west. On 29 January, a home next to Mount Sinai College in Maroubra, Sydney, was sprayed with antisemitic graffiti. These incidents have caused significant concern and distress for all of our Jewish community. Can I say again, the Prime Minister should have been very strong on this right from very the start, instead of trying to walk on two sides of the road at the same time.

The one point I want to make is that the Nazi symbol targeting the Jewish community has been misconceived as the swastika. As the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I want to point out that the swastika is actually an ancient and sacred symbol of peace and good fortune for Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and other faith communities. The Nazi symbol targeting the Jewish community is the Nazi symbol of hatred, the hakenkreuz. We have to be very clear about that. The hakenkreuz is a symbol of the Nazi Party, which committed, as we know, the most heinous crimes against humanity, particularly against the Jewish people. Using this hate symbol to intimidate and spread messages of antisemitism and intolerance towards a community in Australia is totally unacceptable and must be prosecuted.

This bill is intended to help mitigate some of the government's failures. We have existing offences in division 80 of the Criminal Code that should have been used to stop the spark of antisemitism. Existing offences in division 80 of the Criminal Code make it an offence to urge violence against an individual or group on the basis of race, religion and the like. They make it an offence to advocate terrorism or genocide. For months, the coalition has been calling for these laws to be used, especially the opposition leader, who has been so strong in his support of the Jewish community. We, on this side, have been saying that the existing offences should be tested and those preaching antisemitism should be taken before the courts. Let the courts decide it, and, if there is an issue with the legislation, we can change or amend the legislation in parliament.

We welcome the belated changes. These changes seek to lower the threshold for criminality for those who urge violence against individuals or groups. Instead of proving that a person 'intended' for violence occur, police now only need to prove that the person was 'reckless'. Can I just say, as a former police officer, that words are key when you have 'must' and 'shall' and 'could'. It is a much higher threshold for the police to prove that the person actually intended for the violence to occur. Now it will be 'reckless'—whether they knew their actions could lead to violence—which obviously makes it a lot easier for police to prosecute. These laws, as currently drafted, remove the good faith defence for those urging violence. This too is a welcome move because you cannot urge someone to engage in acts of violence in good faith. These laws introduce new offences for threatening force or violence.

Again, in finishing, my heart goes out to the Jewish community, which has been targeted. Hopefully these laws will go smoothly through parliament and police will actually use them to prosecute those people who are committing crimes against the Jewish community.

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