Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I remember where I was on 7 October when the news came in of the potential terrorist attacks in Israel. No-one really had any sense of what was going on at the time; no-one understood the scale. It was only as the hours unfolded that we started to understand exactly what had happened. I don't want to focus this speech on the Middle East, but I do think it's important to start there because that was the turning point of things changing here in Australia. I do think that was a turning point where tensions were heightened in Australia and where people started to judge each other and to turn on each other based on what their views were on this particular conflict. I think that we didn't see the human sides of each other and that we took sides against each other. We saw it on our streets. We saw it in the heightened sense of conflict and the heightened sense of division within Australian society.

Unfortunately, what we have seen not only in Australia but in other Western countries around the world is that, as a repercussion of those tensions and of those legitimate anxieties people are feeling being played out in illegitimate ways, the Jewish community of Australia has been the target of a rise in antisemitism that has frankly rocked my community to its core. It has rocked the Jewish people of Australia to their core.

This country is a country that has built so much confidence, prosperity, freedom and opportunity and has enabled people to contribute to this wonderful country of ours. But it is not possible to do that when there is vilification. It is not possible to do that when there is hate. It is not possible to do that when people are afraid in the ways I have seen of late. We need to fix this.

I said in the other chamber that we need to fix this, and this bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, is an important step forward in saying what is acceptable by law in this country and what is not. As it stands, this bill is an important step forward that says: 'If you want to create violence and attack someone on the basis of a component of their identity, that is against the law. That will be against the law, and there will be a criminal penalty that will be attached to that act.' That does not exist in Australia right now—that, if you want to incite violence against particular groups, you could be charged by the police and put in prison. Right now, a lot of the potential harm that is done is done under civil legislation. This is a significant step forward towards criminal penalties. I understand there are discussions going on across the parliament around the final formation of this bill. I would make the point that, with this bill, we want to make sure we are doing a couple of things. One is that whatever we agree to as a parliament, it sticks—that the legislation is not one that is repealed from government to government but that all sides of politics are committed to upholding a standard of stamping out hatred and division in our society, together for the future. We don't want this to be a political contest. I know the Attorney-General is leading those negotiations at this current moment with the coalition and with the crossbench. I want to also mention the member for Wentworth, who has put forward an amendment that I think is absolutely worthy of consideration. I understand these are complicated negotiations and that there are a range of considerations that we do and do not have control over as backbenchers in the parliament, but I wanted to put it on record that I know the member for Wentworth has witnessed the community that she is the representative of—and the community that is the sister community to mine—go under such intolerable pain and hurt and fear. She has come to this place with a suggestion around how to ensure we lift the standards of how we talk to each other and how we show the standards of hate, discrimination and vilification are removed. Whether we end up supporting that amendment or not will be a collective decision, but, personally, I wanted to say that—though I will accept the collective decision of the government—here and now, I think the amendments moved by the member for Wentworth show a real dedication to representing her community. It is what her community wants, and they can rightly be grateful for her efforts in this.

I wish we weren't here, in this place, talking about vilification and hate speech. I can't even begin to tell you that that is the last thing I wanted to do when coming into this place. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to my community. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to the people who have seen the most unimaginable pain over the last 15 months. But when I came into this place, I had visions on policies around housing, climate change and energy. I want to see mental health support for people in this country improved. They are the passions that I have, as well as ensuring that opportunity is spread across this country for migrant families just like mine who came to this country. It wasn't to be facing the rise in antisemitism like we have. I would also make this point—and I know this has been a point of great contention and sadness and frustration for some people—vilification is not a competition. Hatred is not a competition. If there's any form of hatred, we all lose. I know there are people who will be protected by this legislation who have not had as much media attention but still are extremely fearful at the moment, including the LGBTIQ community. I've spoken to the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, and he has spoken to me and advised me about the sort of work he's doing to try and support his community as well. I think that is an important objective. I fully support that as well. It is not a competition, and we want to stamp out all forms of hate. But that's not why I came to this place. I want to see Australia restored, so we're not talking about the division in our society, and we're not talking about how people are being targeted—we're certainly not talking about childcare services being burnt down. We're not talking about schools being spray-painted with graffiti. We're not talking about cars and caravans being found with explosives in them. We're not talking about synagogues in my electorate being burnt down. We're not talking about my electorate office being targeted and my staff's place of work being completely smashed in, vandalised and made uninhabitable for months. I don't want to be talking about any of that. I want us to come into this place and show unity and resolve so that we in this country target the acts of hate and violence, stamp it out, set the standards of what is and isn't acceptable in this country and show that Australia is a united force and is not going to accept what is going on in our streets right now because that's what this ultimately is about.

We have seen throughout history these dark corners of the community come into the mainstream. Antisemitism has existed in Australia since its inception, since there were Jews here. Antisemitism has existed in golf clubs, in theatres and in a range of institutions where Jews were excluded from even participating. The whole reason the Cranbourne Golf Club was set up was because Jewish people in Melbourne were not allowed to join Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Thankfully, that's changed. I'm not a member of Royal Melbourne and not a good enough golfer to ever expect to be one, but the point is that throughout the history of the Jewish community post Holocaust, there have been places where the Jewish community has not been able to fully participate. But on the whole Jews have been safe in Australia.

Unfortunately, what we have seen since 7 October 2023 is a rise in community anger and in community dissent and division, which has created a perfect cover and smokescreen for the sorts of people who want to see antisemitism brought to the mainstream. We have seen neo-Nazis marching in the middle of Melbourne, marching in South Australia and marching on the streets outside our parliaments. People who are espousing white supremacy are outside our place of proud multicultural democracy. It is an affront to what we are as a country, and we have seen these sorts of hate-fuelled ideologies and inciteful and discriminatory ideas being brought into the mainstream of society before. That is where we are right now.

The question isn't whether or not we stand idly by and what our country does. The question we must confront is: what are we going to do about it? How firmly will we stand together to say this is not going to happen in our name? We cannot stamp this out completely. I wish we could, and we should definitely aim for that, but what we can do is ensure that together, in this place as leaders of our country in this moment, we stand up proudly for what Australia stands for. We are a multicultural country. We are a migrant country. We are a place where we spread opportunity and we spread equality amongst all our citizens equally. We say that everyone is equal before Australian law, that everyone deserves to be in this country free from discrimination and vilification and hatred, that every single person has a right to practice their faith and religion free from persecution and vilification, that every single person has a right to return to their homes safely without it being spray-painted or vilified in the way in which we have seen and that every single Australian has the right to participate fully in Australian life without the fear of being targeted for being who they are. That is the Australia that I signed up to. That is the Australia that gave my family and my grandparents a home after they were kicked out of their previous homes in Europe. That is the Australia that I believe in. That is the Australia that makes me proud to be a representative in this incredible house of democracy.

This bill is not one I wanted to ever conceive of, but it is an important step forward to meet this moment and to set the standards of what is and is not acceptable in this country. No person of any race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or disability should feel anything other than equality before the law, and that is what this bill does. If you are going to try to incite hatred and violence against those people, you will be charged and potentially convicted under our criminal law. We might not be able to stamp out every discussion and conversation in this country. We might not be able to restore everything overnight. But what we can say is that, in the mainstream of our society, in the suburbs that we are all proud to represent, we will not tolerate this.

I love this country. I love Australia. I love the fact that I am a proud Australian, and I am also a proud Jewish Australian. I'm proud of my community. I understand how much they are hurting right now. I understand that we have not yet confronted this in my lifetime. I understand that people want to see action, and that is exactly what this bill is. I understand that the Jewish community is not asking for special treatment; they are asking for safety. They are asking for the exact same treatment that they used to have and to be the same as every other member of the Australian community. They want to ensure that their kids can go to school, that their littlest kids can go to child care, that they can go to synagogue and that they can worship and practise their faith in exactly the way that they have been doing for hundreds of years. This bill is a step forward in ensuring that we as a parliament take the clearest of stances to make sure that we respond to the moment, respond to the vilification and hate and say, 'Not in our name.' We say, 'Not in Australia's name.' We say that this is not the Australia that we support, that this has no place in Australia and that, in Australia, if you want to incite violence against another group, then you will face the full force of the law.

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