Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with sadness that I speak today about the senseless attack on the Parramatta and District Synagogue. Sectarian and religious violence is largely unknown in Parramatta, but a fortnight ago, at about 10 past nine on a Sunday night, a large block of concrete was thrown through the glass doors of the residence adjacent to the synagogue, and the back windows of two cars parked in the drive were also smashed. Thankfully, neither Rabbi Wernick and his wife nor any of their children were hurt by this cowardly, infantile and dangerous act.

Let us call this act for what it is—stupidity. It involved a group of young men skulking around in the night, finding a safe target—a family at home—and throwing a block of concrete and smashing some car windows while running away. And, through all that, they are thinking that somehow this rabbi in Australia—where Australian Jews have lived alongside Australian Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians peacefully for decades—is a reasonable target because they do not like what Israel is doing.

What have we, way over here, got to do with all that, way over there? It does concern us because conflict in far away places puts pressure on and within our community. The diversity of our population requires some of us to re-evaluate and redefine old relationships from other parts of the world in the context of living in this country—to find ways to heal, to tolerate and, hopefully, to enjoy each other. What we do here in this country—how we respond here to and with each other—defines us, not what happens thousands of miles away but how we treat our neighbours because of it.

I have talked to some people in my electorate who are worried that people come to Australia and bring with them their old wars. They believe that our newer citizens are defined by their history, not their hopes. I know enough of our new citizens to know that that is an unfair judgement for the vast majority. We here in this country, in this time, make our relationships within this country every day. We create our history here and, ultimately, the cohesion of our community will depend not on who we are or where we came from but on how we have treated each other here over the years. It will depend not on the history somewhere way over there but on the history here. These young thugs damage our community. They have taken conflict elsewhere and tried to build bad history here with this ridiculous and pointless action.

This act is not about Lebanon or Israel; it is very much about us. I am sure Israel is not particularly scared of a big block of concrete thrown in Parramatta. I am sure it does not know about it. The only people who have been scared by this are a couple of young kids who have been introduced to violence born of racism and religious bigotry in this country, in our country, in the last couple of weeks. We must all condemn this act, just as we must condemn the mind-numbing stupidity of people who assault young Muslim women in the street, pushing them over and pulling off their headscarfs in the ridiculous belief that somehow persecuting a young girl is going to make our society safer or more familiar—not for her, or course; who knock off the turban of a Sikh in the absolutely absurd belief that he is a Muslim and therefore connected to some extremist group, when actually he is a Sikh; who get themselves photographed in a mob beating up an Italian Australian because they thought he might be Lebanese; who abuse a woman because she is not a Muslim and does not dress like one; or who throw a big rock through the door of a rabbi’s house because they do not like Israel.

We do not usually experience this kind of stupid behaviour in Parramatta. In fact, one of the reasons that I am so proud to represent Parramatta in this House is the diversity of cultures within my electorate and the way that all these cultures get along with each other. Having said that, I also know that, among the diverse community I represent, there runs deep sorrow about the conflict in the Middle East right now. The tragic conflict between Israel, Hezbollah and Lebanon has a long and tortured history and many Australians within my electorate, especially those who have been personally affected by the fighting in the past, hold very strong views on it.

I attended a special service at the local mosque, Nabi Akram, on the Friday night preceding the attack on the synagogue—a gathering to offer condolences to Lebanon. This was a gathering of people with the strongest emotional response to the tragic events being played out in the land of Lebanon and that, I suspect, is why the religious leaders decided to provide a forum for this particular Australian community to meet and discuss the circumstances and their response to it. The religious leaders made a simple point: the people of their community are entitled to their views and entitled to express them. Within the legal frameworks of this country, which is their home, they are entitled to put those views strongly—as long as they do it within the Australian context and Australian law—and peacefully through the media and their community and political representatives, and in other peaceful ways. Members of that community have been writing to me and phoning me ever since.

What a difference between the responsible behaviour of the many and the destructive, stupid behaviour of a very few. It is a great community that we live in. Let us not let a few stupid young people damage it. I join the community of Parramatta in condemning this act.